The myHomecare Group was featured in the ABC News article ‘The myHomecare Group offers aged care workers tickets in $10,000 lottery for working extra shifts.’
For a summary of the article read on.
Aged care workers lottery.
Staff who work extra shifts are eligible to win a share of a $10,000 lottery offered by The myHomecare Group.
The tickets were being offered as an extra incentive to aged care workers as the industry continues to suffer from staff shortages.
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.
In the nationwide lottery, the longest-serving employees received preference.
“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.
Mr Miller said the lottery tickets were in addition to receiving overtime pay, rather than in lieu of payment.
When asked why aged care workers were not instead paid a higher wage as an incentive to work more hours, Mr Miller said “not everyone wanted to do more”.
Additionally, the company has distributed fuel vouchers to employees who use their own vehicles for work on three occasions.
Move criticised by the health service 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.
“There would be no need for an employer to get creative to attract and retain workers if they were offering well-paid, secure jobs,” National Secretary Lloyd Williams said.
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