Workplace News
Disability nurses coerced into new roles
NSW legislation allows the Minister to dictate where disability nurses will work.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS) was a federal Labor government initiative aimed at giving disabled people and their families more choice and control over the types of care and support they receive.
State governments are mainly responsible for implementing the NDIS. In NSW, state Liberal governments used the NDIS rollout as an opportunity to privatise the entire disability and homecare sectors.
As part of the privatisation process the NSW government passed the NDIS Enabling Act in 2013 allowing it to forcibly transfer disability and home care workers from the state to a private provider.
This means the government avoids its responsibility to find suitable alternative employment in the public sector or alternatively offer a redundancy.
“We have no right to redundancy if we refuse because we have no choice as to where we may work,” said Stockton branch president Kieran Kelly.
Branch secretary Terry Rae said some Stockton nurses through an “expression of interest” process had been offered three month’s retraining to take up nursing positions in the general medical, psychiatric and aged care fields.
“Nurses currently at Stockton are only guaranteed employment for two years after privatisation and we don’t know what will happen to our pay rates, long service leave and other conditions after that.
“We call on the ministry to make funds available to retrain all Stockton nurses who wish to enter an alternative field of nursing.”
Privatised home care service “appalling”
Terry said increasing reports of problems with the privatised home care service did not bode well for the future of Stockton clients.
Families of home care clients in the Hunter region have told the Newcastle Herald the quality of care has dropped dramatically since the service was taken over by Australian Unity in 2016.
Dawn Lhota’s 37-year-old son, Graham Roberts, is wheelchair -bound with a series of physical conditions including Friedreich’s ataxia, heart disease, insulin-dependent diabetes and scoliosis. Ms Lhota told the Herald home care had deteriorated dramatically since Australian Unity took over midway through last year.
“Home care under the government wasn’t perfect, but it was very good,” Ms Lhota said.
“Under Australian Unity, it’s been appalling.
“Now, we are regularly rung by head office telling us at very short notice that there will be no carer available the next day for my son, that I will have to do it.”
She said her son, being wheelchair-bound, needed help to get in and out of bed and for other things, including his “Epipen” insulin injections.
“He has an NDIS plan, he has the funding to cover all of this, but they keep ringing to say they can’t get the staff,” Ms Lhota said. “They say, you’ll have to do it. When home care was government owned I went to visit my son, not to care for him.”
Privatisation delivering reduced services
Another family upset with Australian Unity’s management of home care listed at least nine occasions since August last year when staff had not turned up as rostered, with no explanation given.
“Australian Unity has no head office person to complain to, you only get a call centre,” this family said.
The Herald said Port Stephens MP Kate Washington had fielded a growing number of concerns from constituents and home care staff. She said the home care privatisation had been a disaster.
Ms Washington said clients and workers were both “at breaking point” over what was happening.
“Since the privatisation, clients have experienced great difficulty accessing the services they once had. And there appears to be no accountability whatsoever – nowhere to complain and no oversight,” she said.
Australian Unity told the Newcastle Herald that it accepted there had been problems with the way home care was being delivered, and these had been “compounded by a range of significant industry reforms” including the NDIS and changes to home care packages, that “occurred simultaneously, directly impacting the same clients and staff”.
But when the Herald sought a response from the new Disability Services Minister, Ray Williams, a departmental spokesperson said the department was “not aware of any complaints in relation to the quality of services provided by Australian Unity of the nature alleged”.
When Australian Unity did the privatisation deal with the government last year its senior executive Derek McMillan claimed Australian Unity would provide increased levels of care.
“We see the extensive range of services as one of the key benefits we bring to clients of home care,” he said. ■