New civil penalties including $78,000 fines for individual workers are grossly unfair and should be scrapped from the Federal Government's aged care reforms, the Health Services Union has argued.
In a submission to the parliamentary committee scrutinising the Aged Care Act, the HSU supports the passage of the bill but recommends a range of improvements.
In its current form, the bill creates new civil penalties for workers found to breach the code of conduct.
This is on top of state-based criminal penalties for assault and criminal negligence and a raft of regulations for registered professionals.
The HSU also calls for the definition of a "responsible person" as "any person who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the registered provider" to be made clear or better defined to executive decision-makers.
HSU National Secretary Lloyd Williams said the bill took important steps towards putting the rights of people receiving care at the heart of the system, but needed some amendments.
"Workers who do the wrong thing are already subject to strict disciplinary procedures which can result in people losing their jobs and even entire careers, alongside state-based criminal penalties for assault and negligence," he said.
"Given workers are almost never in charge of the conditions and organisational decisions at their workplace, making them liable for civil penalties is grossly unfair.
"Senior decision-makers and providers will rightly face penalties under this bill, but that should not extend to workers.
"The broad definition of who is a responsible person could capture workers who in reality are in no way responsible for a facility.
"This either needs to be significantly tightened or removed altogether. We can't have a scenario where this vague definition makes workers responsible for incidents they shouldn't be blamed for.
"The HSU supports the passage of this bill because it makes important changes that will improve our aged care system and support workers in this critical sector."
The submission also calls for:
Positive Care Worker Registration, including training requirements and the professionalisation of care work should be implemented through the Act
Providers to be held to account for care minutes in the Act
All providers, including digital platforms, should be registered and regulated to create an even playing field for providers as the NDIS Provider Taskforce recommended
"Workers should have their own registration system, rather than minimum qualifications being done through providers. This would send a clear signal about professionalising an undervalued workforce," Mr Williams said.
"Aged Care Minister Annika Wells rightly called out providers who weren't meeting their required care minutes. There's now no excuse for providers and they should face real-time accountability in this legislation to ensure they're doing the right thing."
