St Vincent’s Private update #25: Bargaining update: additional members meeting Tuesday 25 February to consider details of revised offer

21 February 2025

DAY 96 OF PROTECTED INDUSTRIAL ACTION

Assistant Secretary Madeleine Harradence and Senior Industrial Officer Leigh Hubbard provided an update on negotiations at the members meeting on Friday 21 February.

ANMF advised that it is waiting for St Vincent’s Private Hospitals to provide final details and wording for draft clauses. This will enable members to view the entire offer at a members meeting to be held at 2.30pm Tuesday 25 February.

ANMF expects to be able to present a proposed agreement that includes:

An overarching commitment to supernumerary in-charge on all day shifts and a move to this position on night duty over time.
Prescriptive staffing clauses to improve staffing in the immediate areas of need – birth suite (night shift), postnatal (night shift), paediatrics (PM shift), Kew (night shift) and neuroscience (night shift). An additional minimum19 shifts are guaranteed in these areas and will be allocated per day/per shift in the agreement (subject to change only by agreement with the Nursing and Midwifery Consultative Committee (see below).
A Nursing and Midwifery Consultative Committee (NMCC) to review additional staffing needs in eight priority areas with a guaranteed minimum 12 shifts to be allocated by the committee. These 12 additional shifts will be specified in the agreement.
The NMCC will also review the implementation of RUSONs (Registered Undergraduate Students of Nursing), RUSOMs (Registered Undergraduate Students of Midwifery) and RENS (Registered Enrolled Nursing Students), the use of agency and the role and rostering of ward clerks.
A specific provision for theatres and PACU in relation to ensuring adequate staffing is rostered for tea and meal break cover. Additionally, those staff rostered for relief are not to be utilised to cover unplanned absences.
For ENs: a finalised application process and criteria for advancement to EN Level 3 Advanced.
All other matters that were contained in previous offers by St Vincent’s Private remain in the proposed agreement including wages (no change to dates of payment of increases), improvements to allowances and leave.

ANMF also shared information about the Epworth offer, which is comparable to the St Vincent’s wages offer. Epworth’s current wages are slightly less than St Vincent’s Private wages so a slightly higher percentage is required to reach pay parity with public sector nurses and midwives. We also note that there is currently no offer of dedicated staffing resources included in the proposed Epworth agreement. ANMF will forward a comparison of the Epworth offer to St Vincent’s offer to members early next week.

THE WAY FORWARD

ANMF officers were clear with members that if the drafting provided by St Vincent’s clearly reflects the above positions and is prescriptive, then we will recommend that the proposed agreement go to a ballot of all staff. Our view is that escalating protected industrial action again at this point will do little to improve the offer as it stands.

While some members may be disappointed with this outcome, you need to keep in perspective where we started this campaign and where we were even in December, with management refusing to meet regularly or discuss staffing in any real way. Members should feel proud that your determination and grit have got us to this point.

The proposed clauses in the agreement, the additional staffing and the role of the NMCC sets a clear framework for the next two years. It gives St Vincent’s Private an opportunity to prove their bona fides on staffing and workload management to you and the ANMF before bargaining begins again in early 2027.

MEMBERS MEETING TO CONSIDER REVISED OFFER

Members meeting
Tuesday 25 February, 2.30pm- 3.15pm
Online via MS Teams. Please see the emailed version of this EBA update for the meeting link.

This meeting will present a detailed revised offer for members’ consideration and to pass a resolution about the way forward.

It is critical that as many members as possible attend this meeting to ensure you are part of the discussions and decisions about the next steps of your campaign.