Aged care workers across Australia vote to take industrial action

Aged care workers protesting for better pay and career certainty outside Parliament House in Canberra last month. The sector’s workers across the country have voted in favour of industrial action. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Aged care workers across the country have voted to take industrial action over acute staff shortages and continuing low rates of pay, and their union says the mood for strike action prior to the election is “very strong”.

The United Workers Union says members at five aged care providers collectively employing 7,000 workers have voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action, with three more ballots due in the next week.