Community support workers among NZ's lowest paid

[b] Home and community support workers want better reimbursement rates for using their own vehicles for work

A pay equity claim had included that, but is now off the table

Health NZ says it's looking to improve the system

Ministers have asked officials to report back.

Home and community support workers, who look after the country's elderly, are feeling frustrated at the amount they're compensated for using their personal vehicles for work.

The workers are among New Zealand's lowest-paid employees, maxing out about $29 an hour.

They also use their own vehicles to travel between jobs and are reimbursed at an amount significantly less than the Inland Revenue Department recommends for personal-vehicle use at work.

The issue was part of a pay equity claim by the female-dominated workforce, who consider themselves underpaid in comparison to those dominated by men.

That's now off the table after the government changed the law last month.

Tightening of pay equity law 'gut-wrenching', brings advocate to tears

South Island support worker Sandra (RNZ has agreed not to use her surname) is reimbursed $2.35 for trips under 15 kilometres and 63.5c a kilometre for longer trips.

"We can travel up to 10 or 11km and we still get that standard rate of $2.35," she said.

"A colleague of mine bought a brand new car in 2017. There are now 240,000 [kilometres] on the clock. Over the past year she has spent well over $3000 just in servicing and repairs on her car."

Stories such as that were common.

"I had to get a lot of work done on my car to get a warrant. The work was going to cost around $1000 and, of course, I couldn't afford that up front, so I had to save for that.

"In the meantime, because the warrant on my car had run out I couldn't register it either. I was still having to work in an unwarranted and unregistered car, and I got a $400 fine."

With no pool cars available, she said she had no other choice than to keep using her own if she were to continue working.

Home and community support workers can do tasks such as washing or showering clients, cleaning their houses and preparing food.

Sandra had spent more than 20 years in the sector, during which time petrol and vehicle costs have risen faster than the reimbursement rates.

"We've always used our own vehicles, but I think when I started we got paid per kilometre, and I think it was around 20c per kilometre, which actually worked out quite well back then."

Sandra generally doesn't get paid to travel to the first home she visits for the day, or home from her last jobs of a day.

The rates for the sector are below the Inland Revenue recommended rate of $1.04 a kilometre for personal-vehicle reimbursement up to 14,000km a year.

Health NZ says it's looking for improvements

Under a decade-old law, Health NZ covers the cost of workers' private vehicle use by paying the country's service providers (there are about 50 of them), who then pass this on to the workers.

Health NZ ageing well acting director Mark Powell said the Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Act 2016 set eligibility criteria and minimum pay rates.

"The providers can choose to pay more than what they claim back from us," he said.

"The IBT [in-between travel] Settlement commits the Crown to review the mileage rate annually against the current relevant rates paid by the Inland Revenue Department and [adjust] accordingly as funding allows.

"As part of our aged care funding model, we are currently developing options to improve the travel payment system to ensure the incentives are right, encourage efficiencies and are attractive to home support workers."

Health NZ provides advice once a year about reviewing the rates, and the health minister, in consultation with the ACC minister, then makes a decision.

Minister of Health Simeon Brown said he had received advice on the matter and was considering it.

E Tū union's director for community support Mat Danaher said improvement was needed.

"We believe very strongly that this is a pay equity issue and it has been part of our pay equity discussion.

"It does absolutely need to be resolved. It is totally unfair. It is iniquitous."

The sector was one of 33 for which claims had been laid by female-dominated workforces, but which were stopped under the pay equity law change, which tightened the criteria to bring claims.

Pay equity claims: What they are and how they're changing

Danaher said the home and community support field of more than 10,000 workers was 90 percent female.

"Fisheries officers and many other male-dominated occupations, where you're expected to drive between sites or between clients or between visits, come with a car provided by the employer and a fuel card.

"You are paid from the moment you start work and get into that car until the moment you finish work at the end of the week."

Workers 'morally blackmailed' into using own vehicles

Invercargill-based disability support worker and E Tū union rep Gordon Cambridge was critical of the pay equity law change, which halted the sector claim.

He said without appropriate payments for the likes of personal-vehicle use, the disability and community support sectors would continue to have a high turnover of workers.

"People are virtually morally blackmailed into using their own car and running up huge amounts of mileage almost entirely for work."

Cambridge works for IDEA Services, which does pay its support workers at the Inland Revenue-recommended rate for own-vehicle use under a collective agreement negotiated in 2023.

A spokeswoman said when that was next renegotiated, changes in the standard government reimbursement rate would be considered.

It also had work vehicles available to staff.

Labour spokeswoman for seniors Ingrid Leary said home and community support workers were upset about the situation.

"They had expected to get a pay equity settlement. On the back of that they had not pushed too hard on the transportation because they thought it was all going to be sorted out.

"Now that the pay equity claim has been cut they're left with these terrible reimbursements that don't actually cover their costs and make them, essentially, pay money just to do their job."

Minister for Seniors Casey Costello said New Zealand needed to have a good home care system and managing travel costs and funding better was part of that.

She and Simeon Brown had asked Health NZ to report back to them on options to improve travel payments.

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said the new pay equity scheme was there to address genuine sex-based undervaluation across workforces.

"Workers in the employment system should know that there are processes available for employees and employers to agree pay and other conditions such as collective bargaining rounds."

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