| Date: | Thursday 21 May, 12pm - 1pm |
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| Location: | Online New Zealand |
Home support workers and their unions have been battling to get their safety, and their clients’ safety, the attention it deserves.
While supermarket workers have been quickly provided protective gear, home support workers have had trouble getting their work and its inherent risk during the pandemic even noticed. As of April 9, twenty care and support workers, out of 64 healthcare workers, were infected with Covid-19 ('Nelson carer forced to self-isolate after client gets Covid-19', Stuff website, 10 April).
By the end of April, a total of 155 healthcare workers (across all jobs) had been infected – 1 in 10 of infections. Potentially, that’s around 50 or more home support workers.('One in 10 Kiwi cases is a healthcare worker', Herald website, 30 April).
The Auditor-General is currently reviewing the procurement and distribution of PPE in New Zealand. However, it is unclear how much they will review how PPE is distributed to frontline workers such as home support workers who are not directly employed by DHBs.
In this seminar, Dr Katherine Ravenswood, Associate Professor in Employment Relations at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law will discuss why it is so hard to have the risk to home support workers, and their clients, recognised.