Don't pay so you can read it. Pay so everyone can!

Don't pay so you can read it.
Pay so everyone can!

Bupa, Medibank give massage therapists an unhappy ending 

by Zacharias Szumer | Dec 19, 2024 | Business, Latest Posts

Ever enjoyed a relaxing remedial massage at the office? Maybe it’s time to check in on the people untangling your knots. Zacharias Szumer irons out the industry snarls.

At a recent ‘wellbeing expo’ organised by your correspondent’s workplace, employees were invited to enjoy a ten-minute massage from one of five ‘massage angels’. 

The angels were ‘back by popular demand’ and ready to give a hands-on demonstration of the heavenly perks of signing on with one of the company’s ‘wellness partners’.

To help readers decode the HR jargon – this meant that, to reach the corner to which the angels had descended, employees had to pass a Medibank table staffed by several reps. 

Insurers ‘price gouging’ with secret premium hikes

 

Corporate remedial massage is sometimes simply a benevolence that management or the HR department blesses upon their tired and overwrought workforce.  

In other settings, it’s a promotional opportunity for companies like Medibank and Bupa – as private insurance covers remedial massage. 

But how heavenly are the work conditions for our ‘angels’?  

He said that he was told to take it or leave.

MWM has recently chatted with four therapists who say their industry is rife with exploitation, safety violations, and an absurd degree of micromanagement. 

A bum deal at Bunnings 

In August last year, Theo (not his real name) arrived at a Bunnings Warehouse presuming he’d be massaging employees in a private space. 

The 31-year-old, who’s been in the industry for three years, was surprised to be asked to set up his chair near the check-out and give massages to customers and their children – as well as employees.

Much of this work is arranged by subcontractor agencies – even if Medibank or Bupa are the ultimate ‘corporate wellness partners’ – so Theo reached out to the agency that had given him the Bunnings job for help.

Bunnings check-out

Private massage at Bunnings check-out

He said that he was told to take it or leave. If he chose the latter, he wouldn’t be paid for the hours he’d been booked.

“Despite my reservations, I decided to attempt to accommodate the revised arrangement,” he wrote in a subsequent complaint letter to the agency. 

However, he encountered “numerous unsettling issues” in his first hour, such as staff members making “inappropriate jokes that created an uncomfortable atmosphere for both myself and the clients”, Theo wrote. 

He again asked to be relocated to another area, to which Bunnings finally obliged, sending him to the following location:  

A more private Bunnings massage

A more private Bunnings massage

After protesting once again, he was asked to leave. 

He says he doesn’t blame Bunnings itself – save for one “overzealous manager” – but rather the agency, and by extension the private health insurance companies, for not setting firmer boundaries. 

The agencies “want the least friction possible while making a booking”, he says. 

“They just ask time and place and then send us in there blind to deal with problems”. 

‘Suck it up’

In July, Theo complained to his boss about being set up “in a kitchen area in an open plan office, being interrupted and harangued by employees all day, and having to perform massages where clients had no privacy whatsoever)”. 

His boss then told him to “suck it up” and continue working on the job – which he was carrying out on behalf of private health giant Bupa.  

The boss later sent a defensive reply, saying she was under considerable stress and that this was “the 1st & only time I asked you to ‘suck it up’”. 

Several other massage therapists have told MWM that such problems are relatively common – as is being asked to deliver massages for hours in stationery-cupboard-sized rooms without windows, or without access to the bathroom or a sink to wash their hands between massages.

Extremely private massage

Lowest acts are just the beginning

Mathew (also not his real name) said his agency and the insurance company showed little interest in helping during a booking in which, once a week, he was required to massage in the janitor’s storeroom of a hospital. 

Finally, after six weeks, he was moved to a room next to the mortuary. 

Through an observation window, he watched dead bodies being prepared before someone politely suggested closing the blinds. 

Therapists are told that, should they have any issues at a job site, they should call a special Bupa or Telus (a Medibank contractor) hotline, but MWM has heard that calls to these numbers are rarely answered. 

“I don’t even bother,” another massage therapist, who we’ll call Jessica, told MWM. 

“It did work once, but apart from that, the other times when I tried to call them: no answer”. 

‘Sham contracting’

Several massage therapists told MWM they have the worst of both worlds: the precariousness of being independent contractors and the lack of freedom of employees.

This situation is often referred to as “sham contracting” and Association of Massage Therapists Executive Officer Rebecca Barnett told MWM says it’s “a very broad issue across the entire industry”. 

“Subcontracting is promoted heavily to massage therapists as a flexible, lucrative, be-your-own boss proposition,” she said. 

“In reality, though, subcontractors are often subject to a huge degree of control that would suggest that they’re actually in an employment relationship, but without the security and stability that a guaranteed income brings.”

“We’re independent contractors, but we can’t negotiate with them,” Jessica says. 

“It’s almost like negotiating with terrorists. You try to have a discussion and then it just goes nowhere. It goes absolutely nowhere,” she says, adding that therapists who raise issues often get offered fewer jobs in the future. 

Same Job, Lame Pay: BHP and the black coal wage swindle

 

Some email threads seen my MWM show workers arguing with these companies for weeks or even months about payment claims.   

They are not paid for the time – usually at least 30 minutes – that it takes them to set up at these corporate jobs. 

“Self-promoting” is also prohibited. 

This means that, if you’re an employee who receives a great massage from a particular therapist and wishes to have another, the therapist has to inform you to speak with the private health insurer. 

MWM has seen messages from Bupa to the massage agency, and from massage agency to therapists, in which they are told off for such self-promotion. 

Holistic

Holistic solutions

Parking it

Other emails show workers endlessly haggling with bosses over parking issues because they aren’t provided with parking, are given incorrect information, or are told to park illegally and move their cars during their fifteen-minute breaks. 

“Bupa does not & has never paid for parking,” one employer tells Theo in an email message, recommending that he carry his massage chair and other equipment with him on public transport. 

While not getting your parking paid for is pretty low in the grand scheme of worker hardship, it does look a tad skimpy considering the international healthcare giant made over $1 billion in profit before tax last year.

Shelton – who’s been a massage therapist for 26 years and has been doing corporate jobs for just over a year – says that, after getting “glowing reviews” from clients, arguing over a $20 parking fee with agencies is a real pain in the arse. 

“It’s like you always have to follow up on it. You always have to prod and poke because, like I said, that thumb is kept on the scale that tips everything in their favour,” he said.

Shelton agreed to use his own name because he’s about to leave the industry.

“I love the work itself. I love what I do. But it’s just ‘Well, shit, what am I going to be up against now?’”

Corporate ‘wellness washing’  

The massage industry attracts caring people who can be particularly flexible when it comes to the demands of those above them – meaning that they’re particularly vulnerable to exploitation, Theo says. 

Due to the relatively high hourly wage – around $45-$60 per hour – it also attracts many workers with poor English who may lack an understanding of their work rights. 

(Corporate clients reportedly pay around $100 dollars an hour for a massage therapist.)

Barnett says her organisation has only recently become aware of “ridiculous working conditions” in the corporate remedial massage sector and is concerned that there’s a double standard at play.  

“Private health funds have rigorous standards of practice for massage therapists who provide treatments that can be claimed by their clients through private health insurance. 

“This includes working from suitable clinical facilities, sanitation, and comprehensive client intake and record keeping processes.” 

“To me there seems to be a problem if the same rigour is not being applied in these corporate wellness packages.” 

“It’s also a problem that the labour of massage therapists is being unfairly exploited, apparently in terrible working conditions, in the service of what might be termed corporate wellness washing.”

We take all concerns seriously

In response to these complaints, a Medibank spokesperson told MWM: “We take matters of workplace health and safety seriously and will undertake a review with our suppliers regarding these concerns.”

Bupa told MWM that it had “strict guidelines and processes in place to help ensure safe working environments and care for health professionals, our customers and clients.”

“We take all concerns seriously and are committed to addressing and resolving any issues promptly,” a Bupa spokesperson said. 

To extend a small olive branch – your correspondent isn’t suggesting that all massage therapists hate this corporate work.  

In fact, one ‘massage angel’ he spoke to at his company’s wellness expo said he loved it. 

One particular highlight, he said, was giving a massage to Anthony Albanese in the Qantas Chairman’s Lounge.


Editor’s Note: following Zach’s landmark investigation into the Wellness sector, MWM has engaged independent advice from PwC Wellness Services Procurement which is expected to hand down its report in mid 2025.

Under current Wellness procedures, overseen by MWM Global Vice President of Human Resources, Johnnie, all employees are encouraged to pursue the DIY approach to workplace massage. “Our Process Improvement Taskforce Team is evaluating a range of outcomes but US Government research has found DIY to be the only way to consistently ensure a happy ending,” said Johnnie.

Zach Szumer

Zacharias Szumer is a freelance writer from Melbourne. In addition to Michael West Media, he has written for The Monthly, Overland, Jacobin, The Quietus, The South China Morning Post and other outlets.

He was also responsible for our War Power Reforms series.

Don't pay so you can read it. Pay so everyone can!

Don't pay so you can read it.
Pay so everyone can!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This