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Aged care workers protest for pay

Author
Alex Mason,
Publish Date
Thu, 26 Mar 2015, 12:49PM
(Photo: Getty Images)
(Photo: Getty Images)

Aged care workers protest for pay

Author
Alex Mason,
Publish Date
Thu, 26 Mar 2015, 12:49PM

UPDATED 1:34pm: Fed up aged care workers want Radius Care to pay them the wages they say they're entitled to.

Caregivers will this afternoon voice their frustrations in a protest outside the company's head office in Auckland.

David Wait, from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, says Radius is refusing to budge on a pay offer.

He says union members want Radius to pass on the funding provided by the Minister of Health last year.

"Essentially this dispute is about them holding on to money that was campaigned for by the Aged Care Association for the purposes of wages for carers."

Wait says soon over half of Radius' pay scale is going to be overtaken by the minimum wage.

He says managing director of Radius Brien Cree has made a number of public statements saying carers should be paid more.

"He's also said that employers are effectively just a funnel for cash and that the government provides the money, well in this instance, the Government has provided the money but Radius have decided to keep it."

Today's action comes as job website Seek says more jobs are opening up in aged care with fewer people entering into these low-paying positions.

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