Aged-care sector ripe for NZNO growth: the aged-care sector is largely non-unionised, yet its workers are among those most in need of union protections. NZNO has plans to increase union coverage amd membership in the sector.

THE AGED-care sector has for too long been a Cinderella of the health care system. Professionally and industrially, NZNO has worked to change this image. Professionally, NZNO's national gerontology section has done much to raise the profile of this specialist practice area, with a series of successful biennial conferences and the introduction of a gerontology nurse of the year award. One of the country's ten nurse practitioners works in gerontology (see p18-19).

Industrially, NZNO is also working to increase union coverage and membership in the sector. NZNO, along with the Service and Food Workers' Union, has campaigned strongly and successfully for standardised national training for caregivers. NZNO has had two representatives on a Standards New Zealand committee looking at developing a standard related to "staffing effectiveness for aged and dementia care". NZNO continues to lobby strongly for more funding to ensure adequate staff/patient ratios in aged care and safe care.

NZNO's aged-care sector group has an industrial strategy to ensure greater union coverage and to boost the number of NZNO members in the sector. The sector group met in late March and brainstormed the meaning of effective unionism in aged care. Some features canvassed included the need for recruitment plans, with member targets for workplaces; the need for just one union per workplace; greater effectiveness between unions; and a focus on developing large collective agreements (CAs).

The purpose of greater union coverage and increased NZNO membership includes building unity and activism in the sector; gaining fair pay and safe working conditions; raising the quality of care; and building relationships with Government, the Ministry of Health and with consumer groups, including Greypower and Age Concern.

NZNO has nearly 6000 members in the aged-care sector, although not all are financial. Of the 4210 financial members, 45.5 percent are caregivers; 40.5 percent are registered nurses (RNs); ten percent are enrolled nurses (ENs) and "other" categories of members account for the remaining four percent.

Within the sector, there are around 575 workplaces. These workplaces fall into three main types: combined hospitals and rest-homes; stand alone rest-homes; and retirement village complexes. There is a similar distribution of all three types of workplace across the country. Further work is required to establish NZNO membership spread within these workplaces, but membership is higher in combined hospital and rest-home facilities.

There are a total of 76 CAs in the sector. Of these, 60 are single-employer collective agreements for individual sites. There are also 15 CAs with single employers that cover multiple sites, either regionally or nationally. There is one multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) comprised of three Presbyterian Support (PS) employers in the lower South Island.

Collective agreements cover about 2585 NZNO members, which is close to 61percent of the financial members in the sector. The average size of CAs is 34 members. Of the 76 agreements, 19 had fewer than ten members; a further 21 had fewer than 20 members; 26 had 20 to 40 members; and 19 had more than 40 members, most of these being multi-site CAs. Only four workplaces with CAs had more than 50 members.

Consolidation

NZNO's current bargaining strategy aims to achieve further consolidation of bargaining, based on national, single-employer CAs. Three potential sites have been identified to work on this year--Guardian Healthcare Group (GHG), formerly Harbourside Holdings, PS and New Zealand Lifecare.

Work is well underway with GHG, with NZNO having initiated bargaining for a national CA to cover 22 sites. A committed team of NZNO industrial staff, led by Jane Kostanich, has successfully developed a great group of GHG delegates and we are on course to consolidate into a single, national CA. There has also been significant membership growth at GHG sites. Havencare, another group of aged care facilities, has recently been sold to GHG, potentially bringing another seven sites into the national collective.

Next month a project plan will be developed to consolidate CAs in PS sites. Bargaining s underway in the lower South Island MECA, which covers about 200 members. Presbyterian Support East Coast was due to be renewed in April this year and the PS Central agreement expires in September. It will be important to establish a single expiry date in 2005 for these CAs and September 2005 appears to be a possibility.

New Zealand Lifecare is the third consolidation target and a project plan is to be developed in September.

NZNO's bargaining plan for the aged-care sector has a further objective of using bargaining as an opportunity to increase membership. Work is still needed to make this goal a reality. Despite lots of bargaining in the sector, only very small gains are being made in membership growth. To capitalise on these opportunities we need to develop clear recruitment plans and resources to support bargaining.

Staffing and quality care

Those working in the sector desperately need the support and protection NZNO membership offers. Those who are cared for in the sector also need protection. There is now a body of international research that confirms staffing levels and quality of care are linked. In NZNO's experience, the aged-care facilities which provide the highest quality care are those where staff are valued both financially and in other ways by their employer.