We had a most exciting arrival this week, welcoming six new Carers from Fiji to our staff. They will fill much-needed staffing gaps created by the general healthcare staff shortage which has been exacerbated by staff who are COVID close contacts isolating at home.

Capecare has been working with Brisbane-based organisation HealthX since mid-2021 to secure these staff members, the first group of Pacific Island workers HealthX has helped move to WA since the border reopening.

HealthX has worked with hundreds of healthcare and aged care services in regional and remote locations across Australia for more than 15 years to address long term workforce shortages.

The South Pacific carers are placed for three years (with annual visits home) and are currently living on-site at Capecare, so the program provides a reliable and consistent workforce to supplement local workers. For the Pacific Island workers, benefits lie in being able to further develop their skills and knowledge in aged care and will be able to utilise and transfer these skills when they return home, providing a benefit to their communities.

HealthX CEO Carollyne Palling said HealthX worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as an Approved Employer under the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme (PALM). “This enables us to employ aged care workers from Pacific Island countries to work in regional and rural locations.

“HealthX worked with Capecare to identify its workforce needs and undertook labour market testing to confirm that positions could not be filled with local workers.

“We then submitted a recruitment plan to the PALM scheme team for approval and worked with the PALM Labour Sending Unit to identify, interview and employ suitable workers from the Pacific islands.”

HealthX assisted with visa applications for the workers and a staff member from HealthX travelled with the Fijian workers to Busselton to help them set up home and introduce them to their new community and workplace.

The aged care workers employed through the PALM scheme have completed an Australian standard Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing, Home and Community) which is delivered by the Australia Pacific Training Coalition.

Capecare CEO Joanne Penman said management and staff welcomed the new team members on their first day with a barbecue lunch.

“We are so thrilled to welcome Lita, Mani, Vara, Tama, Dee and Viki to our team and wanted to provide the chance for them to meet some of our team and enjoy an Aussie lunch before they commence work later this week.

“They will be an enormous asset to our organisation and knowing they will be here for three years will also provide our residents with consistent care.

“We will soon also welcome a second HealthX Registered Nurse to our team who is from Singapore, and will have a third join us by the end of this month.”

Capecare has a number of skilled and unskilled positions currently available, which can be viewed here, or email hr@capecare.com.au for more information.

Approximately 400 current and past award-based staff at Capecare will receive an unexpected payment later this month after the Busselton and Dunsborough-based aged care organisation identified payroll discrepancies from the period of 2014 to 2020.

Capecare, Western Australia’s largest regional not-for-profit aged care provider, is repaying all monies owed with interest to recognise and recompense all affected employees.

CEO Joanne Penman said the organisation’s Board and management regretted that this error has occurred and was in the process of contacting all affected staff. She said remediation payments would be made as quickly as possible.

“The discrepancies were identified by a new member of our payroll team. Following a rigorous investigation, the main cause was determined to be inconsistencies of award interpretations in our systems,” she said.

Capecare Chair Martha Ryan said the Board took the discovery of the payroll discrepancies extremely seriously and regretted the errors made.

“We sincerely apologise to affected staff and Capecare is doing its best to compensate staff as quickly as possible.

“On discovery of the potential errors, the Board and Management proactively appointed independent auditors KPMG to undertake an extensive review to ensure accuracy and full transparency,” Ms Ryan said.

Capecare has self-reported its non-compliance to the Fair Work Ombudsman, advising that it had incorrectly applied clauses of the Nurses Award 2010 and the Aged Care Award 2010.

Ms Penman, who commenced with Capecare in October 2021, said Capecare was taking every reasonable measure to ensure this kind of error did not recur.

“We are implementing a number of new procedures and systems, including investing in a new HR information system to measure time and attendance; outsourcing the payroll function; utilising a Compliance Officer to monitor changes to awards and national employment standards; developing an internal payroll audit process; and introducing annual external payroll audits.”

Affected staff will be contacted via mail and phone and advised of the monies owed and the process for repayment.

Capecare has been established for 60 years and is a not-for-profit and independent community organisation, existing to serve the needs of our older people in the Capes Region.

For specific enquiries on the payroll underpayment, email hr@capecare.com.au or call 9750 2000 and ask for the HR department.