Does your agency provide inadequate healthcare benefits? Is your pay keeping you beneath the poverty line? Fret not, you are not alone. Direct care workers make less than employees of some fast food restaurants. Unions have failed the direct care workers miserably, but they are the only help a direct care worker may receive when facing unfair termination or inadequate pay. Low pay, inadequate benefits and lack of job security are amongst the complaints of many direct care workers.
Despite many promises by providers to change the realization of decent and livable wages, fair treatment by employers and adequate healthcare continue to evade direct care workers. Union representatives are not enough to keep the jobs of older employers who are near retirement and dismissed for reasons that seem ridiculous.
There are a few organizations that direct care workers can join that address the issues and needs of America's direct care worker force. These associations and organizations do not address advocacy for the direct care workers. Direct care workers must fend for themselves when it comes to false allegations, med errors and other employee issues. There are some helpful hints below for direct care workers.
Direct Care Workers Should:
- Join their union
- Obtain malpractice insurance
- Enroll in a legal plan that covers employee/employer disputes
- Form an advocacy group or strengthen their union's
- Join existing direct care workers associations to advocate for better pay/better care
The most important thing any direct care worker can do is to get involved. If you do not have a union at your place of employment contact one of the direct care associations online or nursing home associations and find out how to start a union at your place of employment.
