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Australia

Federal government promises to fund potential pay rise for aged care workers

Aged care workers accompany a resident down the hallway of their facility

The Federal Government has promised to pick up the bill for any potential pay rise for aged care workers in a submission to the Fair Work Commission (FWC).

The independent wages umpire is considering a case brought forward by the unions, calling for a 25-per-cent pay increase for 200,000 residential and home care workers.

While stopping short of nominating how much wages should rise, the Commonwealth argued in its submission that the existing award rates do not reflect the value and skills of the sector.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Tony Burke said the COVID pandemic had exacerbated pressures on the workforce and underlined the case for a pay increase.

“Right now, there is no doubt their work is undervalued. We need to change that,” he said.

“Our government is prioritizing these workers as we fight to get wages moving again.”

Unions celebrate commitment

The Health Services Union welcomed the government’s submission, arguing the aging population and changing expectations had made the roles more complex.

National president Gerard Hayes said the government’s submission was a shot in the arm for the sector.

“Older Australians will not get the care they deserve until we can attract and retain a workforce to look after them,” he said.

“The Government has understood this and taken action.

“We are hopeful the Fair Work Commission will make a decision that recognizes the work value of aged care.

“A decent pay rise is beyond overdue.”

A man in a black shirt and glasses sits at a desk
Health Services Union president Gerard Hayes says Australia has allowed aged care workers to be exploited and overworked for too long.(ABC News: Laura Brierley Newton)

The Interim CEO of employer group Aged and Community Care Providers Association Paul Sadler said the case for a pay rise was strongest for registered and enrolled nurses and personal care workers.

“It would not surprise me to see that the increase for these key workers will be certainly up towards that 25 per cent level,” he said.

“The sooner this decision is made the better, but we do support a staged implementation of the increase.”

An election promise

Lifting the pay of aged care workers was a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety’s final report last year.

During the election campaign, Labor promised if it won the government it would make a submission to the FWC in support of a pay rise for the workforce.

The commitment was criticized by then-prime minister Scott Morrison, who questioned how Labor would fund any increase, instead opting to give aged care workers across the country two standalone payments of $400.

Workforce shortages

Unions and industry groups have argued pay increases are needed to attract and retain skilled workers for the sector.

Aged Care Minister Anika Wells said a pay rise was the first step to addressing workforce shortages.

“We need more staff in aged care and a pay rise is the start of ensuring workers are rewarded for the crucial roles they play,” she said.

“One of the main causes of the gender pay gap is low pay and poor conditions in care sectors like aged care, where the majority of workers are women.

“Increasing wages in aged care is essential to ensuring that men and women are paid equally.”

Wells is sitting next to some out-of-focus colleagues. She has her hand under her chin.
The Albanian government has committed to funding any proposed wage increase.(ABC News: Matt Roberts)

If the unions’ case is successful, the FWC would vary the aged care award, the document outlining minimum pay rates and conditions for the sector.

That change could see the minimum wage for aged care workers rise by at least $5 an hour.

The minimum wage of a qualified personal carer would be bumped up from $23.09 to $28.86 an hour, dependent on salaries when the application was lodged.

Under the union’s proposal a level 1 aged care worker could see their weekly pay increased from just over $800 to more than $1,000.

The case has been before the FWC since 2020.

It is due to hear from the government and unions when it holds hearings this month.

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Entertainment

Gold Coast-based Hard Fizz company makes $10m during Covid lockdown

Gold Coast-based Hard Fizz company makes $10m during Covid lockdown

A popular alcohol brand owned by a group of celebrity entrepreneurs has taken off in Queensland.

The Gold Coast-based Hard Fizz company – which launched in 2020 during the height of the Covid pandemic – was co-founded by model and entrepreneur Chloe Fisher, 30, and her husband Paul, 35, a Grammy-nominated DJ.

“When the pandemic first started, Paul and I were at home on the Gold Coast wondering what we were going to do,” Ms Fisher said.

“His gigs were cancelled, he couldn’t tour and then we were pitched the idea of ​​a seltzer company.”

Celebrities such as DJ Tigerlily, TV personality Brooke Evers, professional surfer Laura Enever and Aussie chef Hayden Quinn also front the brand, which is now stocked in more than 3000 outlets across the country, including Dan Murphy’s and BWS.

Hard Fizz has grown to be the third most popular seltzer in Australia behind White Claw and Smirnoff.

After returning from the US, the Fishers discovered a gap in the Australian market for the popular vodka-based drink.

“After spending so much time in the States, we knew how huge hard seltzer is there – it was an untapped market in Australia.” Ms Fisher said.

“People were drinking it everywhere in the states,” Mr Fisher said.

The pair, who collectively share more than 1.6 million Instagram followers, got married in 2020 before the launch of their new brewery in the Gold Coast suburb of Miami.

The business, which has amassed more than $10m in sales this year, and $7.5m in its first year, is made up of a team of 70 per cent women.

“I’m so proud to be involved in a company with such a large and strong female contingent,” Ms Fisher said.

“It’s been so amazing to see the company take shape with so many dominant females.”

Hard Fizz chief executive Wade Tiller said in the 15 years he had worked in the industry, he had never seen such a female-dominated workplace, with women taking up roles in sales management, business development, activation, trademarking and marketing.

“Working in the industry over the years, I think my colleagues were 80 per cent men,” he said.

“I think drinking habits have changed and society is slowly changing for the better.”

Employee Sophia Pearson said since joining the company she had leapt from promotion to promotion.

“I’ve been promoted twice in about seven months and they have both been from them coming to me.” she said.

“It’s honestly quite refreshing.”

Australian Distillers Association chief executive Paul McLeay told NCA NewsWire that distillers specifically still had a “long way to go” when it comes to gender equity.

“(Women in distilling) still sit at 25 per cent, so, yeah, there’s a long way to go,” he said.

“We support and encourage women into the industry and we have some extraordinary women distillers that are doing some amazing products.”

Long-term trends in alcohol consumption show Australians are drinking better-quality products, with women leading the shift in patterns.

“Gin for example has an 85 per cent female customer base,” Mr McLeay said.

Government figures show almost three times as many Australian women choose to enjoy spirits rather than beer.

Although there are no official statistics to represent how many women work in the alcohol industry, it is estimated around just 15 per cent of women accounted for all distillers.

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Business

Qantas travelers faced massive delays due to IT glitch at Melbourne airport

Qantas travelers faced massive delays due to IT glitch at Melbourne airport

Qantas is battling to deal with nightmare queues at Melbourne Airport this morning after a nationwide computer outage grounded flights on Sunday evening.

Travelers looking to jet from the Victorian capital to Sydney today were met with huge lines snaking all the way to the international terminal as the airline struggled to deal with the “domino effect” caused by the IT glitch.

“(The queue) snakes all the way back pretty much to the international terminal,” Today reporter Christine Ahern said.

“On top of this, there’s a fairly long queue for the service desk as well because there are three canceled flights to Sydney. So, people are trying to be rebooked on other flights.”

According to the carrier, the issues began at 2.30pm on Sunday, with at least a dozen flights affected.

By Monday morning, several people had taken to Twitter to share angry messages about their flights being cancelled.

The latest issue to hit the embattled airline has also led to renewed calls for CEO Alan Joyce to stand down.

Hello @Qantas. Again flight cancellation W*F. ‘We are sorry we had to cancel your flight QF417 from Sydney at 06:45 on Mon 1 Aug’. Alan Joyce please resign,” wrote a Twitter user.

Qantas forced to increase costs

Recently, Qantas was also forced to cut several flights from their schedule, while hiking up the price of domestic flights due to higher fuel costs.

On Thursday, the airline said they had been pushed to “rebalance capacity and fares,” so they could increase the number of passengers flying on the remaining flights.

Prices saw an increase of up to 2.6 per cent, adding around an extra $10 per ticket. This comes as jet fuel has seen increases of 28 per cent throughout 2022, soaring at prices of around A$208 a barrel.

Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, Qantas Domestic and International CEO Andrew David said that flights would be reduced over July and August and apologized to customers.

“We are the national carrier, people have high expectations of us, we have high expectations of ourselves and clearly over the last few months we have not been delivering what we did pre-COVID,” he said.

“We have reduced some of our flying this month and we’re planning to do the same next month, recognizing the operation pressures we have.”

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Categories
Business

Qantas nightmare: Australian traveller’s horror overseas flight saga

Qantas nightmare: Australian traveller's horror overseas flight saga

As I found myself stranded in Athens airport, surrounded by unsympathetic airline staff and forced to splash out an extra $2700 on new flights back home, I couldn’t help but feel this all could have been avoided.

Like thousands of other Aussies, I too had a nightmare experience flying with Qantas.

It’s amazing what can happen to a beloved national airline when it sacks 9000 staff, outsources thousands of jobs, moves customer service teams overseas and hands out millions in bonuses to executives.

My nightmare all started when I fell for the trap that is ‘frequent flyer flights’.

I applied for a credit card back in May (disastrous idea), splurged on a new laptop to secure 120,000 bonus Qantas points and booked my first overseas holiday in years.

There was a slight catch, my flights to Europe were from Adelaide – but given I had spent less than $1000 on taxes in addition to my points I thought I had scored a bargain.

I called up the Qantas helpline in a bid to see if they could help me book connecting flights from Sydney to Adelaide – mistake 1.

Instead of booking me a simple flight home from Adelaide to Sydney, they REPLACED my overseas return leg from Athens to Adelaide.

It wasn’t until a few days later that I noticed my overseas leg had vanished and been simply replaced with the domestic flight.

I spent over five hours that night on hold as I desperately tried to explain what had happened to call center workers who struggled to even speak to me let alone understand my complaint.

This is of course not their fault, they are doing the best they can in difficult circumstances. The blame lies with an airline that sacrificed quality, local customer service for cheaper labor.

Just one Qantas call center is located in Australia – and that Hobart team specifically services the airline’s premium clients (the big spenders).

I would wait two hours on hold, before finally getting onto someone – who would then spend 30 minutes attempting to understand my issue, only for them to hang up on me.

After over five hours I finally got onto someone who told me they could no longer get me on my original flight (Athens to Doha to Adelaide) as it was now full.

Qantas has since informed me that the domestic leg wasn’t ticketed correctly – which resulted in my overseas flight being cancelled.

With my trip approaching and still no return leg, I took matters into my own hands and booked another flight via Vietnam.

With so few options available I had to book the Vietnam to Sydney leg with a different airline – Jetstar.

I called up Qantas to make sure that I would be able to get a transit visa at the airport in Ho Chi Minh as I would need to check my bags in and out again during my short four-hour layover between flights.

A spokesperson told me there would be no problems getting a visa at the airport – mistake 2, blindly trusting Qantas again.

Three weeks of blissful travel – visiting my best mates in picturesque Switzerland, a romantic trip in Santorini – finished with me being stuck in Athens after Qantas’ advice was swiftly shot down.

Airline staff refused to let me on my flight as I had no visa – despite the assurances of Qantas it would be fine.

Ironically, the only option presented to me was to spend almost 2000 Euros to get back onto the Athens-Doha-Adelaide flight that I had originally booked months ago – only for Qantas to inexplicably cancel without telling me and then assure me there were no seats on the flight.

Turns out there were seats on the flight Qantas.

And while a seedy room above an Adelaide pub wasn’t exactly how I pictured closing out my trip – I was just glad to get home and be done with travelling.

Qantas’ statement:

“Unfortunately, it appears that the additional domestic flight was not ticketed correctly when it was added to your booking which led to the Qatar Airways booking being automatically canceled by their system.

“Our agent was unable to secure you another seat on that Qatar flight as there were no more reward seats available on the flight.

Our contact centers are not trained to provide visa advice, rather they should direct you to the relevant consulate, and we apologize that this process wasn’t followed.

“We are following up your experience with a full review to help prevent it happening again.”

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