Workplace changes

[sptrawler]

It looks like changes are happening in the aged care sector, pay rises leading to productivity improvements, maybe.

Union alarm over aged care provider's overhaul, with caterers to become carers

A major change in the way Southern Cross Care provides care at its nine Tasmanian aged care sites is labelled 'diabolical' by the union which fears a reduction of skilled workers, and vital services being abolished.

www.abc.net.au

Southern Cross Care Tasmania, which runs nine residential care facilities, has announced a new "household model" of care, which involves catering, lifestyle and leisure staff also caring directly for residents.

Three Southern Cross Care Tasmania facilities have been issued with notices for failing to comply with minimum aged care standards in recent years, including one in August this year.

CEO Robyn Boyd said the organisation's facilities now meet all minimum standards for compliance and that the changes announced today were a direct response to last year's recommendations from the national Royal Commission into Aged Care.

She said the overhaul would provide opportunities for workers — as well as efficiencies for the not-for-profit organisation, which has been making successive losses.

The job descriptions of 175 members of staff — out of the organisation's 1,200 workers in total — will change but Ms Boyd said it was committed to retaining the same total number of staff.

The organisation says it will offer voluntary redundancies and redeployments, including to enrolled nurses whose roles are no longer being funded by the federal government.

Registered nurses and clinical care coordinators would "remain front and centre" in the new model of care, Southern Cross said.

Current catering staff will be asked to complete a Certificate III in aged care.

 

[sptrawler]

Also on the productivity issue, it looks as though the inevitable is starting to come to the fore, we have been saying for a long time that eventually having a third world economy has to lead to a third world living standard.
Well worth a read.

Lower productivity to leave Australians thousands of dollars worse off

The October budget downgraded Australia’s assumed productivity growth rate. It translates into lower living standards and poorer wages for everyone.

www.smh.com.au

From the article:
Treasurer Jim Chalmers will deliver a new Intergenerational Report next year, using the changed assumptions around productivity.

The productivity slowdown has been put down to a number of factors including the shift in the economy towards services and away from manufacturing, the ageing of the population, the types of new technologies, low business investment and diminished competition among businesses.
The smaller economy means the federal government carries more debt, which is projected to be 2.5 percentage points higher than expected in 2032-33.

That debt will be driven by larger than expected budget deficits which, by 2032-33, are projected to be around 1 per cent of GDP, or more than $34 billion.

• In nominal GDP per person terms, the lower productivity assumption translates into $2000 less for every Australian.

Productivity growth in the past decade has slumped to its lowest rate since the 1950s, according to the Productivity Commission. It’s a global problem, with countries such as Canada, Britain, the United States and New Zealand also noting a sharp productivity slowdown.

 

[SirRumpole]

The smaller economy means the federal government carries more debt, which is projected to be 2.5 percentage points higher than expected in 2032-33.

That debt will be driven by larger than expected budget deficits which, by 2032-33, are projected to be around 1 per cent of GDP, or more than $34 billion.

More reason to tax resources before they run out.