MyHomecare Group offers aged care workers tickets in $10,000 lottery for working extra shifts
ABC News
August 15 2022

The organisation is hoping to entice employees to pick up more hours with a chance to win.

A private aged care organisation is offering staff who work extra shifts the chance to win a share of a $10,000 lottery as the industry continues to grapple with worker shortages.

Key points:
Workers are being offered lottery tickets as well as remuneration for additional hours worked
The Health Services Union says it is not a real solution and is calling for better pay
The government is supporting aged care workers' calls for better pay to the Fair Work Commission
The tickets were being offered as an extra incentive by MyHomecare Group, which offers in-home care packages across Australia and services about 6,000 clients in Victoria.

Chief executive Stuart Miller told ABC Radio Melbourne a "perfect storm" had affected the industry, with some clients' houses unable to be cleaned as jobs went unfilled.

"The reality is these people are feeling fed up and [are] leaving the sector in droves, and it's a real problem for us," Mr Miller said.

Entry to the nationwide lottery preferenced those who had been with the company the longest.

"If you've taken on an extra hour, you'll get three tickets, if you've been there a year, it's four tickets," Mr Miller said.

"If you do more hours than you did on average in the previous fortnight or month, we'll give you a ticket into our raffle."

Mr Miller said the initiative started in August and would run until Christmas.

Fuel pumps displaying the Shell logo.
Mr MIiler said workers were given fuel vouchers to encourage them to stay with the company.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
Mr Miller said the lottery tickets were in addition to receiving overtime pay, rather than in lieu of payment.

When asked why staff members were not instead paid a higher wage as an incentive to work more hours, Mr Miller said "not everyone wanted to do more".

The company has also distributed fuel vouchers on three occasions to staff members required to use their own vehicles for their job.

Worse yet to come
Mr Miller said about 30 per cent of his workforce were migrant workers.

"Obviously in the past two years we've had none of that and the reality is, even though we are turning back on the immigration pipeline, it's a lesser number," he said.

"They don't come with the same training required, so we have to invest in that training."

Training took between nine and12 months, Mr Miller said.

"Just to keep up with the demand for our services, we're having to put on 40 staff members every single month," he said.

Move criticised by union
While Mr Miller said the strategy had been successful and had received positive feedback from staff and clients, the lottery was slammed by the Health Services Union.

National secretary Lloyd Williams said the move offered no real solution.

"There would be no need for an employer to get creative to attract and retain workers if they were offering well-paid, secure jobs,"  he said.

"Aged care workers are overworked, underpaid and burnt out.

"It is wrong to take advantage of these workers with short-term incentives. Just pay them more."   

A rally goer holds up a sign saying 'Not enough to survive'
The union wants employers to increase pay rates rather than "get creative".
In August, the federal government confirmed it would fund a potential aged care worker pay increase in a submission to the Fair Work Commission by unions seeking a 25 per cent pay rise for home care and residential workers.

A Department of Health and Aged Care spokesperson said while the government "encourages aged care providers to think innovatively about strategies to attract and retain workers, the emphasis is on improved wages and conditions".

Jesus!  Where's the by now obligatory "poor women suffer the most in this" line?

This is a sector issue... nothing to do with 'gender' - but let's get on with it again, shall we, boys and girls?

This bullshit has been going on since some dork in the ACT, in looking at the differences between welfare workers in the private sector and the public sector, found the public sector was paid more, and then said that this was a gender wage gap..... women equally work in both public and private....

You cannot remove the scales from the eyes of those born with sealed lids and no eyes, those blinded by volcanic ash, those with their eyes poked out with a blunt stick, and ideologues...