MEDIA ALERT
WHEN: TODAY, 4 pm AEDT Thursday 29 October 2020
WHERE: Outside Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Electorate Office – 30 The Kingsway Cronulla, NSW, 2230
WHAT: Home care workers will deliver a petition signed by 2000 home care workers, families and clients demanding home care waitlists be cleared and urgent action taken to rebuild the home care system.
WHO: Home care workers will give speeches and be available for comment.
NOTE: Everyone attending this event will be expected to adhere to current social distancing guidelines.
United Workers Union home care members deliver a petition of 2000 signatures of home care workers, clients and families to the Prime Minister’s office to send a strong message to the public and politicians that home care waitlists need to be cleared. We need to rebuild a better, fairer system that provides quality and dignity of care and values the skills of the workforce.
There are currently more than 100,000 people on the home care waitlist. In addition, care workers are paid low wages, aren’t given enough time to provide quality care, and are being pressured on to zero-hour contracts while making themselves available around the clock.
Quotes attributable to Mel Gatfield, United Workers Union spokesperson for Home Care:
“The government has underfunded homecare through this pandemic and clients have died waiting for their home care packages, devastating families and care workers.
“The Royal Commission into Aged Care has highlighted this crisis but workers are continuing to be left out of the conversation when they know best what the system needs to work.
“Care workers overwhelmingly endorse Counsel Assisting’s recommendation to the Royal Commission that the government should clear the home care waitlist by December 21 and keep it clear by providing people with a package at the approved level within one month of assessment.
“Today’s delivery of the petition to the Prime Minister is just the start of what is to come. Care workers are standing up to demand essential funding from the government to provide dignity of care for our communities and clear the homecare waitlist.”