(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
Ethnic aged care providers are urging the federal government to allow in temporary workers with European language skills.
But a union representing aged care workers says that instead, a shortage of workers with language skills should be overcome by offering higher wages.
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Matt Smolcic is chief executive of Cardinal Stepinac Village, an aged care facility in NSW for members of the Croatian community.
He says there is an acute shortage of aged care workers with the language skills to cope with the growing ageing population in European cultural communities, particularly those who suffer from dementia.
"People who used to speak English perfectly, lose that ability to communicate in English and they can't even ask for a glass of water, to be toileted or whatever. It is very, very sad to actually see that happen. And we do need to have staff who can understand and communicate with them, and that is the hands-on staff. That's why we raised that issue because that need is growing. In our facility it is evident already."
Manager at Saint Hedwig Village Kathy Eberl says her organisation for the German community in NSW is facing a similar problem.
"It's quite a difficult situation where someone who is caring for you can't explain for you what they're going to be doing; either taking you to the shower or changing you because you may have soiled yourself or I'm going to take you to the dining room now because it's lunchtime."
A group of 10 aged care facilities for European communities has submitted a petition to the federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler, and Minister for Immigration, Chris Bowen.
Kathy Eberl says they are suggesting that European languages skills be included in the criteria for 457 temporary working visas.
"As our ageing workforce retires we find that the people who are applying are, one, either not there because not everybody wants to work in an aged care facility. It's not glamorous. And two, they may not have the language skills that an ethnic aged care facility will need. Because the children, who are perhaps first-born or second-born generation have either not learnt the language of their parents or grandparents or have gone on to learn jobs and have got qualifications for different areas. So the people with those language skills are not available to us. "
United Voice is a union that represents 300,000 aged care workers across Australia.
It says there's no need to recruit aged care workers from overseas.
United Voice says there are enough qualified people with the necessary language skills in Australia - but the wages being offered aren't high enough to attract them into the industry.
Sue Lines is the assistant national secretary of United Voice.
"The issue is that if you're paying the workforce around $19 an hour to provide a quality aged care service of course they're not going to stay and that doesn't matter if they're from within our community who speak another language or whether they're from overseas. It's not a solution to bring a temporary workforce in and, in any event, those European language groups are readily found in the Australian community."
But Kathy Eberl from St Hedwig Village says operators of ethno-specific aged care facilities already have increased costs catering for the cultural needs of hteir residents.
She says those that depend on government funding can't afford to increase wages as well.
"And that's sort of a Catch-22 situation. Everything that we do is legislated. And there is very little room for flexibility. If we had more funding than perhaps we could pay more, but that's something that's not possible because we just don't get enough funding to cover that. And looking at the visas is one thing we're asking the government to consider. On one side they are saying you need to cater to ethno-specific people, or people from non-English speaking backgrounds, but on the other side we can't provide that. If we can't find those people in Australia then we do need to look elsewhere."
