The Public Service Association and E tū have today filed legal action in the Employment Relations Authority alleging Health NZ is breached the Wages Protection Act 1983 by unlawfully requiring home support workers to provide their own cars and pay associated costs when travelling to and between clients’ homes all over New Zealand.
The unions claim is that Health NZ as the funder of all home support worker employers is in a legal sense the controlling third party and is in breach of Section 12 of the Wages Protection Act which provides that employers are not entitled to impose any requirement on any workers about how wages are spent.
"These workers are providing an essential public service, funded by Health NZ. They are among the lowest-paid workers in the country and had their pay equity claim cancelled. Yet they are the only publicly funded workers required to supply and maintain such significant tools of their trade as a car," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
"Health NZ is exploiting home support workers by forcing them to fund their own vehicle costs and accepting a mileage allowance that has not been increased in four years - all while delivering an essential publicly funded service on low wages, made worse by the fuel crisis.
"Around 23,000 home support workers care for elderly New Zealanders and those with injuries, illness or disability, helping them live independently in their own homes. To do that work they must travel between clients in their own cars, meeting the costs themselves, before being reimbursed.
"Home support workers are expected to own, insure, register, fuel and maintain a car as a basic condition of their employment, all out of wages that can be as low as minimum wage and a mileage allowance that does not come close to covering the real cost of running a vehicle.
"The Wages Protection Act was introduced precisely to stop employers requiring workers to spend their wages to fund their employer’s business. That is exactly what is happening here. Health NZ’s funding contracts effectively mandate that home support workers must carry vehicle costs that should be borne by the system, not the worker," Fitzsimons said.
The mileage allowance is paid to home support workers under the Home and Community Support Work (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Act 2016 has not been increased since 2022.
"The fuel crisis is hitting these workers hard; the Health Minister has the power to direct that rate to be lifted immediately and he should.
"These workers have been let down at every turn. This legal action is about making clear that what is being asked of them is unlawful, not just unfair."
The unions are seeking a declaration from the Employment Relations Authority that Health NZ has not complied with the Wages Protection Act.
