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IHC Southern Regional Office - Source: ONE News -
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An IHC support worker is delighted that he will now be paid the minimum wage for supervising the disabled overnight.
The IHC is asking the government for an extra $20 million a year following an Employment Court decision that has determined it must pay those supervising the disabled overnight the minimum wage for their work.
At present, workers like Phillip Dickson are paid less than $4 an hour for staying overnight in an IHC residential home.
The IHC claimed these workers were not technically working as they were allowed to sleep.
Dickson says the reality was quite different.
"You could be attacked during the night, you could have to change beds during the night, you could have to help people shower during the night."
The Employment Court agreed and ruled that Dickson and thousand of other carers must now be paid at least the minimum wage of $12.50 an hour and Dickson is pleased.
"I'm rapt, we've been working on this for a long time" he says.
Dickson says that after a decade in the job this case was more about the principle than the pay but he hopes it will attract a few more like him to working with the disabled.
The ruling is a significant victory for the Public Service Association which backed Dickson's case and they say they are confident it will have an impact in other parts of the health sector such as elderly care where staff work under similar conditions.
"There are many thousands of workers in that industry and we would expect that the cost in it there alone will be in excess of 100 million dollars" Richard Wagstaff, PSA National Secretary .
The IHC says it will need an extra 10% on top of its current budget to cover the shortfall.
"We had 3800 of our staff doing at least one sleepover last year so there's 250,000 sleepovers in a year" says David Timms, IHC
Health Minister Tony Ryall is out of the country and would not comment on IHC's request for the additional millions and a spokesman from his office said a timeframe could not be put on any such decision.
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