The picket outside Arvida's Village at the Park in Berhampore, Wellington on July 18, 2024, protesting cuts to hours.
The picket outside Arvida's Village at the Park in Berhampore, Wellington on July 18, 2024, protesting cuts to hours.
Staff, residents, families and neighbours of a Wellington retirement village yesterday protested against cuts to workers’ hours by $4.2 billion retirement giant Arvida Group, claiming people in care would suffer.
But a director of the Wellington village said nothing was yet decided and assurances were given that proposed changes wouldnot affect the quality or safe delivery of care.
“Back off Arvida”, “we value our nurses and caregivers”, “stop the cuts” and “union rights are human rights” were signs carried by protesters outside Berhampore’s Village at the Park owned by Arvida.
The event was run by E tū and the New Zealand Nurses Organisation and a union statement said Arvida was proposing to cut more than 400 hours a week from care worker, nurse and activity coordinator schedules.
Rita Narenda speaks at the rally against Arvida Group in Wellington on July 19. Photo / E tū
E tū delegate and care worker Rita Narendra said: “With fewer staff, we won’t be able to care for all of them because there won’t be enough time. I don’t want any resident to stay in bed until the end of the shift. I don’t want to see residents not getting up to enjoy their life as they always do. I don’t want to see any residents ringing the bell with no one attending to them. It’s very sad.
Tristan Saunders, a Village at the Park director, said the business was engaging with staff, unions and residents on proposed changes.
“In those discussions, we have provided assurances that our proposed changes would not affect the quality and safe delivery of our care services. We agree with E tū and the Nurses Organisation that there are funding challenges for the aged care sector which we are having to work through.
“However, there have been no decisions made on any proposed changes. We will be continuing to discuss these issues with our Village at the Park care team and management as we work through our consultation and feedback process. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this time. We continue to support our team members and our residents and families throughout this process.”
But Narendra said cutting hours meant staff were unable to spend as much time with residents.
Arvida pushed up net profit 69 per cent from $82m to $139m in the last year and grew assets 12 per cent from $3.8b to $4.2b.
Lew Skinner (left) is a resident of Arvida's Village at the Park in Wellington. He spoke at the rally against hours being cut on July 18, 2024. Photo / E Tū
Lew Skinner, a resident, said the proposed cuts did not make sense.
“No one sees staff sitting around doing nothing. We see no fat in the system.
“These proposals affect all of us. Independent residents are part of the Village at the Park community, many are one short step away from moving into the care units.”
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
