E tū delegates Gordon Cambridge and Pam King have urged the Government for urgent action, as most workers are struggling with the rising cost of living and inflation.
Mr Cambridge said the union negotiated a care and support workers’ settlement in 2017 which could have meant an increase of about $7 an hour for workers, using the wage calculations used in the historic Kristine Bartlett settlement.
However, in 2022, they had an increase of less than $1, "a bit different" from what had been promised, he said.
"Even just a reasonable interim settlement will be nice, and we’ve been asking for that for over a year ...
"We’re hopeful but hopeful doesn’t put bread on the table."
The average hourly rate of a support worker was about $25, almost $2 below the living wage, Mr Cambridge said.
Many in the industry were immigrant workers. The minimum hourly rate for foreigners to get a resident visa had increased and many needed to find other jobs so they could stay in the country.
The union wanted something to be done before the end of the year, and any new government to act in its first 100 days in power, as the industry could be on the verge of collapsing.
The demands of an ageing population would continue to increase but the sector was losing workers, Mrs King said.
The Southland Express approached Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall for comment, but a spokeswoman said this was not something she could speak to, as Te Whatu Ora was the funder and negotiator.
Te Whatu Ora’s group community health system improvement and innovation commissioning manager Mark Powell said the organisation funded employers of care and support workers and did not set care and support worker pay rates.
Work on the care and support worker pay equity claim was led by the providers and the unions in the sector, he said.
They worked with the Ministry of Health to extend the 2017 Care and Support worker settlement until the end of the year, and care and support workers received a 3% wage increase from July 2022.
"We increased the funding to employers by 5% from July 1, 2023 and worked with employers and union representatives on a proposal to use the additional funding to increase support worker pay rates by an additional 3%.
"We also worked with other funders of care and support workers to ensure funding was available to enable employers to increase pay rates."
Mr Powell said Te Whatu Ora would continue to work to achieve pay equity for a valued workforce.
