Source: PSA
Home support workers are calling on the Government to stop talking and start acting after Finance Minister Nicola Willis signalled it was considering extra funding for essential services hit by rising petrol prices.
The Finance Minister today said Health Minister Simeon Brown was looking at helping the 23,000 essential home support workers, whose mileage allowance has been frozen for four years.
“This is urgent. If the Government wants to keep home support services running at this time of crisis, the answer is simple: fund these workers properly and quickly,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“Considering is not good enough. These workers have been underpaid and undervalued for years. They have already been hit hard by the Government’s decision to cancel pay equity claims covering the sector, depriving them of a significant pay rise.
“They cannot afford to wait while Ministers mull over temporary fixes when the cost of fuel has rocketed and many are filling up twice a week.”
Home support workers provide essential services to help the elderly, disabled and injured live independently at home.
“These workers drive their own cars to reach their clients and can no longer absorb these rising costs – they’re already earning too little.”
The PSA represents thousands of home support workers – they are overwhelmingly women, many work part-time and many do not have dependents so missed out on the changes to Working Families announced this week.
“The Government wants a pat on the back for ‘looking into’ a temporary fuel subsidy. Actually, these workers deserve permanent, and urgent concrete action, not a band aid.”
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.
