Aged Residential Care Provider Newsletter

28 July 2017

This newsletter is designed to help Aged Residential Care (ARC) providers implement the Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement.

This edition includes:

·  Newsletters when needed

·  Annual leave liability data collection

·  Pay equity implementation audit process

·  Palliative care

·  Qualifications guidance

·  Cash advance recovery

·  Support for providers and workers

·  Pay equity guidance

·  Key dates

·  Frequently asked questions

Newsletters when needed

Almost all of New Zealand’s eligible care and support workers have now received their first pay with the new minimum wage rates guaranteed by the pay equity settlement.

From this point in the settlement implementation, with the new systems up and running, we will send out the implementation newsletter as it’s needed or as requested.

Support for providers and workers remains in place to assist with any questions or issues that arise as do the Ministry’s dedicated pay equity web pages and the pay equity implementation team.

Once again we would like to acknowledge the effort providers have made to help implement significant changes in a short timeframe and for continuing to support the roll-out of the settlement.

Annual leave liability data collection

The Ministry now aims to send the data collection tool and guidance for annual leave liability to providers by the end of next week (4 August). After verification of the data, annual leave liability payments will be made from 29 September.

The Ministry is contributing to the impact of the pay equity settlement on the cost of annual leave and lieu days for public holidays that were accrued prior to 1 July 2017. The Ministry will cover both Health and ACC eligible services.

We will also be collecting annual leave liability information from MSD/MVCOT providers on their behalf, to be used in their implementation of the pay equity settlement for vocational and disability support workers.

If you have any queries please contact the specialist payroll team on 04 570 9677 or

Pay equity implementation audit process

The Ministry’s first round of audits to help improve future guidance for employers and employees, and the design of the wash-up process, will get underway in August and September. The audits are a requirement of the pay equity settlement agreement.

They will focus on the usage of payroll/HR systems to implement the settlement, the translation of existing staff and new staff onto the agreed rates, the translation of qualifications and length of service, and casual employees.

We’ll select 20 providers to be part of the initial phase of the audit process. Providers selected to take part will be contacted by the Ministry’s Audit and Compliance team to arrange a suitable time for the review. Our staff will only be on site for 1-2 days.

If you have any queries about the audit process please contact the pay equity implementation team at

Palliative care

Care and support workers who primarily provide long-term residential care in hospitals and rest homes are covered under the pay equity settlement irrespective of a resident’s palliative care diagnosis.

However, please note that palliative care that takes place in a hospice is not covered under the settlement.

If you have any queries about the pay equity settlement and palliative care please contact the pay equity implementation team at

Qualifications guidance

Careerforce is continuing to review domestic and international qualifications for relevance to the work undertaken by care and support workers and equivalence to the NZ Certificates in Health and Wellbeing (Levels 2, 3 and 4).
In some instances, Careerforce will work with individuals in assessing their qualification equivalency.

As workers’ qualifications are assessed relevant and equivalent they are posted on the Careerforce website (www.careerforce.org.nz/pay-equity/equivalencies/). The qualifications under review include those forwarded by providers.

If you have any questions about qualification equivalency please contact Careerforce on 0800 277 486 or email with ‘Pay Equity Qualification Query’ in the subject line.

Cash advance recovery

As we said last week, the pay equity cash advance will be recovered over a three-month period, with three equal instalments deducted from funding payments from 1 August.

This approach is being taken because of the scale of the increase to wage costs, which can be up to 49 percent for individual workers. It doesn’t set a precedent for advance payments for other health services in the future.

If you have any queries about the cash advance recovery please contact the pay equity implementation team at

Support for providers and workers

Support for providers

If you have any questions relating to the Settlement, please contact your funder in the first instance.

The Ministry has prepared a guide for payroll managers on implementing new pay rates under the Settlement. This is available for download from our website here. If you have a technical payroll question that isn’t covered in the guide, you can contact the specialist payroll team directly on 04 570 9677 or

If you have a question about qualifications please contact CareerForce (0800 277 486 or email ).

Support for workers

Workers are being advised to talk to you, their employer, in the first instance.

If their issue remains unresolved they can contact the appropriate union. The unions will provide advice to members and non-members.

Union call centre numbers are:

•  Aged Residential Care

•  NZ Nurses Organisation – 0800 283 848

•  E tu – 0800 186 466

•  Disability Support and Home and Community Support Services

•  PSA – 0508 367 722

•  E tu – 0800 186 466.

Workers can also contact their local Citizens Advice Bureau or Employment New Zealand – 0800 209 020.

Pay equity guidance

The Ministry of Health has distributed a significant amount of information about pay equity to funders and providers.

Please find below a summary of the resources and information available for funders and providers.

·  Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Agreement

·  Operational policy documents for Aged Residential Care

·  Information for Individualised Funding

·  Guidance for employees

·  Payroll guidance

·  Guidance for employers on the following frequently asked questions and more is available in the fact sheet available for download from our website here:

·  Worker and/or service eligibility

·  Pay band translation

·  On-costs

·  Annual leave liability

·  Casual employees

·  Training

·  Other relevant qualifications

·  Ratification

·  How the settlement is funded

·  Employees' other conditions of employment

·  Work underway to ensure the care and support sector is sustainable.

Key dates

From 1 August Cash advance recovery begins

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions can be found in the employer factsheet which is on the Ministry website http://www.health.govt.nz/new-zealand-health-system/care-and-support-workers-pay-equity-settlement.

For more information visit health.govt.nz.

28 July 2017

Pay Equity Settlement Implementation 4