Health Care Assistant Jan Scammell pictured with (back from left) Valita Carrington, Fay Twigley, Kim Clouston, Addy Lynch, Debs Mulligan, Huia Buchanan and Betty Mauheni. The group are all care and support workers affected by the Government’s $2billion Pay Equity Settlement.
Employees around the district from Tairāwhiti’s six rest homes and two home-based support providers - CCS Disability Action and Ngāti Porou Hauora - received a pay rise under the Government’s $2 billion Pay Equity Settlement.
Beetham HealthCare’s Health Care Assistant (HCA) Jan Scammell, is one of them.
Deserved recognition is how HCA Jan describes her new pay rise.
There are around 55,000 care and support workers in New Zealand’s aged and disability residential care and home and community support services, who will see a 15-50 percent bump in their pay. Those on the highest pay rate will plateau at $27 per hour in 2021.
Hourly rates are dependent on qualifications and time with current employers. Jan has been an HCA for 13 years but has only been at Beetham for four-and-half years. She has a qualification almost equal to the NZ Certificate in Health and Wellness, excluding a few extra unit standards. This means her pay has gone up around three dollars per hour.
“I love my job - the teamwork, working with others and feeling like I am making a difference. From my perspective, the settlement means recognition of the work that we do.”
Beetham General Manager Diane Bell is thrilled with the settlement result.
“It not only lifts the income of our HCAs and Diversional Therapists, ut also provides incentive for them – particularly HCAs – to undertake further training.”
There are other positive flow-on effects as well.
“It makes these types of roles a career choice. Having a well trained workforce also adds value to the care residents receive” says Diane.
Under the settlement Hauora Tairāwhiti has received $1.8 million in government funding to be distributed among providers throughout 2017 and 2018, a task entrusted to Disability and Older Persons Portfolio Manager Mike West.