Social workers NOT funded by government are not eligible for funding to cover the pay equity agreement \u2013 is that your organisation?
\nIt was fantastic news that our own Minister Jan Tinetti announced late last year that social workers will get pay parity with their colleagues in Oranga Tamariki, , it recognises the value of social work done by NGO\u2019s and will help NGO\u2019s attract and retain social workers. On average, social workers in NGO\u2019s will get paid on average $20-30,000 more per annum.<\/p>\n
However, the Settlement just covers those social workers that are funded via government contracts, so there is no process or requirement that social workers funded by other sources (e.g. philanthropics, Gaming trusts, donations, Lotteries etc) will receive the increase in salary. While the Public Service Association union and Social Service Providers Aotearoa continue to advocate for all social workers and workers in social services, it has not, as yet, achieved pay parity for social workers that are not government funded.<\/p>\n
SociaLink is concerned for organisations that are part-funded by government and part-funded by other sources as it will mean that social workers being funded by government will get paid the new rate and the social workers funded from other sources are not eligible for pay parity. For organisations that have no government funding for social workers, those social workers will remain on their existing rate, so as you can imagine NGOs that do not have government funding or only partial funding for social workers are going to really struggle to attract and retain social workers if they can\u2019t offer pay parity.<\/p>\n
As you can see this isn\u2019t likely to be tenable, in reality it is likely that NGO\u2019s, regardless of how they are funded, will need to fund all social workers the new rate, otherwise there is a high likelihood they will lose them.<\/p>\n
SociaLink has raised this with local philanthropics however it would be very helpful to know approximately how many organisations are in the position where they have partial or no government funding for social workers they employ, so SociaLink can continue to raise this with philanthropics.<\/p>\n