Nurses, midwives and carers across Victoria have reported examples of understaffing or workload issues, including:
- employers not replacing staff on sick leave or annual leave
- staff missing lunch and toilet breaks
- hours and shifts for staff being cut
- staff needing to stay back late to complete their work without paid overtime
- a lack of staff on night shifts
- no registered nurse on night shifts
- handover of shift not able to be adequately undertaken.
Almost all enterprise agreements will have a clause outlining reasonable workload practices and how to escalate concerns if you believe workload expectations are too high.
Additionally, in public health services, there are legally enforceable ratios as per the Safe Patient Care Act 2015 to support safe and realistic workloads and to facilitate safe patient care.
How to escalate
If you believe something is unsafe or not meeting the requirements set out in your agreement or the Act, it is important to follow processes to escalate this matter appropriately. In the first instance members should complete a Riskman or incident form relating to the safety issues you are experiencing. It is critical this is done on each occasion as evidence of the ongoing issues you are experiencing. You should also raise your concerns in writing via email to your manager and respectfully request a response to your concerns within a set period, for example, 5 working days or in accordance with your enterprise agreement.
If your concerns are not addressed and issues remain, we recommend members lodge a grievance, or a complaint. All agreements and awards have a grievance or dispute resolution clause that outline how to escalate matters and concerns that are not addressed through initial escalation to your manager.
Your employer will also have a grievance/complaints policy detailing how they wish grievances to be formulated and lodged, it will be vital to also review this and follow the prescribed format.
If you would like your draft grievance reviewed prior to submitting it to your employer, or need assistance with the process, please submit a member assistance enquiry to the ANMF and we will guide you through the steps.
It is important you put your grievance in writing first in the prescribed format to work through the correct procedure, that way the ANMF will be able to assist you if your grievance is not resolved, or the issues continue.
Why is this important?
It is important that all members are escalating and exercising entitlements in their EBAs, including the workload clause so that in the next round of negotiations we have the evidence to show that staffing above current levels is needed. If members do not escalate then the employer has cause to claim that there are no staffing issues in particular wards or areas and the ANMF has no evidence to say otherwise.
