Aged care workers will strike in three states on 10 May, with some 12,000 staff expected to walk off the job.
The strike was endorsed by union leaders representing aged care workers on Wednesday night, with the United Workers Union (UWU) saying members are fighting for better pay and conditions.
The decision was made the day after the Health Services Union began its legal fight to lift aged care workers' wages to about $29 per hour, or by 25 per cent, in the Fair Work Commission.
Workers are expected to strike from eight major care care providers at 160 facilities in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, affecting 12,700 residents.
UWU Aged Care Director Carolyn Smith said workers were motivated to strike due to pay and conditions failing both workers and residents.
"Aged care workers are fed up with waiting, fed up with Scott Morrison's incompetence and fed up with employers' excuses," she said.
"On Wednesday we gave thousands of heartbreaking reports from our whistleblower web site (to the aged care regulator), describing aged care residents left unshowered, soiled and injured due to a lack of care."
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety noted the sector's workforce was undervalued, understaffed and under-resourced.
Ms Smith said aged care workers had been promised the sector would be remediated, and would receive COVID-19 resources, but were instead at the back of the queue.
"Monumental failure by Scott Morrison and his incompetent Aged Care Services Minister means aged care workers are being forced to hold their employers accountable," she said.
Mr Morrison has said the government will get behind an increase in aged care wages if it is recommended by the Fair Work Commission.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has campaigned on lifting wages for the aged care sector, and said Labor will make a submission to the commission to support the wage rises.
Labor also pledged $2.5 billion to the aged care sector if it is to form government on 21 May.
