Aged Care Employers and Low Paid Residential Workers

Aged care employers have called on Fair Work Australia to dismiss the application, made by sector unions, to increase the wage of low paid workers in residential facilities.

The wages application is a landmark case which uses the new low paid bargaining powers of the Fair Work Act to bring employees, employers and potentially the federal government to the table, to increase the wage of “low paid” workers.

Should the court allow the application to proceed in the hearing beginning on 22nd November, both sides will have to define exactly what a “low paid employee” is and union respresentatives are arguing that this means both award wage employees and enterprise agreement employees.

Do you think that award agreements and enterprise agreements should be treated the same for the purposes of the Fair Work Act? What other problems could result from this?