Staff at Auckland's Lady Allum facility are protesting cuts to staffing hours. The facility in includes aged care and a retirement village. Photo: Supplied/ Google Maps
Staff at an Auckland aged care facility picketed outside their workplace on Thursday over their employer's plans to reduce the number of nurses and caregivers rostered on shifts.
Lady Allum Village in Milford was one of the five Oceania Healthcare facilities where staff were told last week they would soon get their work hours slashed by an average of a quarter.
Oceania employs more than 3000 staff at 38 rest homes throughout the motu.
Workers at Lady Allum - who didn't want to be identified - told RNZ the cuts meant they would not be able to pay their bills.
"[Quarter] cut off our hours is a huge chunk of money for all of us," one staff member said.
"I can't afford to pay my mortgage, and it's difficult to support my son at school because of these changes and it's really stressful. It's not just that - it's affecting the residents as well," another long-time worker said.
Pooja Subramaniam from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation said at least 100 staff would be affected.
Staff were unhappy with inconsistent hours as well as a new four-days-on two-days-off schedule, which would limit time spent with their families, she said.
"On average workers are losing about 25 percent of their take-home pay.
"Additionally, this is a huge change to the way they've been working for decades. We've got staff who have been here for between 10 and 50 years and this will have a huge impact on what they do in their spare time."
She said staff were also concerned about the health and safety of elderly and frail residents due to their increased workloads.
"This really will have an impact on their consistency of care, because you're not having the same people on all the time; that changes across days, each shift, and floors.
"It impacts the time they have to do things like hygiene, meals, and companionship."
She said poor pay and inconsistent hours affected staff across the sector.
"Aged care workers across the country are facing similar issues. It's an undervalued sector, they don't get paid enough, and their hours aren't consistent.
Oceania Healthcare national operations manager Jodie Schorn told RNZ that discussions with unions and staff were still ongoing.
She said their objective was ensuring fair shift allocation while maintaining high-quality care.
"We reject any suggestion that these changes will impact the quality of care our residents receive.
"Resident well-being remains our highest priority, and Oceania will continue to monitor and review staffing levels to ensure continuity of care and service quality.
"As with any operational change, we will continue to monitor its impact post-implementation and remain open to staff and resident feedback to ensure care quality and workplace balance are maintained."
She said any changes would be in line with Te Whatu Ora's safe staffing guidelines.
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