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Aged care workers will stop work for two hours this morning to highlight their need for better pay and treatment in the workplace.
They also want better training opportunities.
Around 600 nurses, caregivers and support staff will hold stopwork meetings from 9.30 in the first action of its kind.
Service and Food Workers Union spokesman Alastair Duncan says working with the elderly gets harder every day. He says staffing levels and low pay need to be addressed to make sure senior citizens continue to be cared for.
Mr Duncan says about a third of the country's aged care workers earn just above the minimum wage of $12.55.
Meanwhile, one aged care employer says it is working on a training programme for its staff.
Around 600 nurses, caregivers and support staff employed by Eldercare are holding stopwork meetings this morning over low pay and lack of training opportunities. Chief executive Craig Percy says there is a programme in the works.
He says a careers pathways programme is being introduced, with wage rates to match. Mr Percy says his company can only pay its employees the money passed on to it by district health boards.
- NZPA
