St Vincent’s Private Hospitals STOP WORK and community rally

21 November 2024

STOP WORK and community rally – Thursday 28 November

Thursday 28 November 2024, 12.45pm – 4.15pm
Carlton Gardens – corner Nicholson Street and Victoria Parade

On Wednesday 20 November, ANMF gave your employer the required five days’ notice for stop work action to occur on Thursday 28 November between 12.45pm and 4.15pm. This is item 27 on the protected industrial action ballot order list.

ANMF will hold a stop work rally for all St Vincent’s Private Hospitals ANMF members from the Fitzroy, East Melbourne, Werribee and Kew facilities.

This action is in support of nurse/midwife patient ratios, safer patient care and parity with public sector wages, allowances and working conditions in your next EBA. It is subject to any decision of the all-member meeting next Tuesday (see below).

Members on wards and in other units outside theatres are encouraged to stop work for the last 2.25 hours of your AM shift or the first 2.25 hours of your PM shift.

This means if your AM shift finishes at 3pm, you stop work at 12.45pm – 3pm and do not return. If your PM shift starts at 2pm, you stop work from 2pm and return to your shift at 4.15pm.

Organise for your ward to leave safe night duty staffing levels for that period (your ANMF job reps will liaise with the NUM/MUM).

Theatre members are encouraged to delay the start of the afternoon surgery session as agreed in your campus theatres.

ANMF will walk members down from the front entrance of St Vincent’s Private Hospital Fitzroy at 12.45pm.

ANMF buses will leave from the East Melbourne, Werribee and Kew facilities shortly after the stop work starts.

Make sure your ward, unit or theatre complex is represented.

Not working? All members not rostered to work are urged to attend to support your colleagues.

Bring your placards and signs. Wear your red t-shirt. ANMF will provide drinks and lunch.

ANMF will send members further information about bus times and a link to an online form on Friday 22 November to register your attendance and book a place on the bus.

Members meeting

ANMF will hold an online members meeting on Tuesday 26 November at 2.30pm to provide a progress report on negotiations for improved staffing levels, wages, allowances and working conditions.

ANMF will discuss a revised offer made by St Vincent’s Private Hospitals today (21 November) and how to implement the upcoming stop work on Thursday 28 November. This is an important meeting and all wards and units should be represented.

Please check your emails from ANMF for the meeting notice and Teams link.

The revised offer

The revised offer adds the following items to what was in the proposed enterprise agreement balloted in October. It includes six items:

1. On call/recall: Clause 40 (a) close on call Theatre and Cath Lab arrangements to be extended to existing hospital sites.
2. EN Specialist: new classification scope to be settled enabling a larger cohort of ENs to be classified at a Level 3
3. Redeployment Allowance (campus allowance): $40 per occasion
4. Compassionate Leave: 5 days paid compassionate leave
5. Personal Leave Certification: 5 single day absences without certification
6. Long Service Leave: recognition of 12 months unpaid parental leave as service for the purposes of LSL.

However, because of these added items, St Vincent’s Private have revised the wages offer down slightly – the initial increase will be 4% from 1 February 2025 rather than 4.5%.

The revised offer does not address staffing/ratios although St Vincent’s Private Hospitals are considering a consultative arrangement around staffing/workload matters. ANMF has offered to meet with St Vincent’s Private early next week to discuss staffing issues generally (especially priority issues such as night shift, maternity suites, in-charge with patient load, Kew overnight etc.)

The additional week of annual leave for part-time nurses is also not included in the revised offer. Job Reps will meet tomorrow to consider the revised offer.

Non-use of rebateable form in theatre

In theatres at Fitzroy under item 5 of the protected industrial action, nurses have not been completing the Rebateable items Form (F48B) and duplicate. Instead, they have been using a plain piece of paper and attaching the patient ID sticker and then the product stickers (or handwriting the item, company, quantity and Lot/Batch/Reference numbers on that paper. They are then signing that paper and stapling it to the patient record. This ensures that there is a record of prostheses inserted into patients in the event of recall.

Separately they are writing into a book for supply reordering purposes the product information (but not providing the patient details). This means re-ordering can be assured but the information cannot easily be sent to the insurer for reimbursement. St Vincent’s Private has claimed this admin ban (not using the Rebateables Form) is a safety risk or, alternatively, unprotected action. We disagree. Our lawyers have also checked the process and disagree.

ANMF Senior Industrial Officer Leigh Hubbard wrote to St Vincent’s Private Hospitals today and in part the email says:

Members are recording the information they would otherwise record on the form, including all information required for patient safety, and attach that information as part of the patient’s record.

If there have been instances where information required for patient safety has not been recorded could you please provide me with the specific details and examples as soon as possible so that we can address that issue?

We will advise our members that they should continue to record the information they would otherwise record on the form and attach that information to the patient’s record.

Reminder: ANMF withdraws Meditech Expanse bans

ANMF reminds members that it has withdrawn any ban in relation to Meditech Expanse, including any work related to transfer of data or training.

Members should attend any scheduled training related to Meditech Expanse and cooperate with any work required to implement the new system.

Follow ANMF on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok

Members are encouraged to follow ANMF on our social media channels. You’ll find campaign information, support from your union colleagues and you’ll be able to support each other.

Find and follow ANMF (Vic Branch) via @anmfvic

Campaign resources

Members are encouraged to use the campaign social media profile picture, Teams screen, Dear patient letter, Nurses and midwives speak out flier, Information for senior nurses and midwives and Social media work ban guidance all available via anmfvic.asn.au/stvprivresources.

Take photos and video of your action

Keep uploading your photos and short video of members wearing the campaign t-shirts at work or reading their letter to the editor, with your campaign signs and at the upcoming stop work rally so we can share these on ANMF’s social media channels and in our publications. Refer to ANMF’s Social media work-ban guidance on our campaign resources page.

Remember to take your pics or videos holding the camera vertically as these are better for social media reels.

Please don’t email photos or video as the quality will be reduced. Instead upload the original-sized files to our St Vincent’s Private Hospitals Dropbox folder via the QR code or at

anmfvic.asn.au/stvsdropbox.

Hardship fund and reporting pay docking threats or harassment

It is your legal right under the Fair Work Act to take protected industrial action in support of the campaign for an enterprise agreement.

‘Protected’ means you cannot be terminated or disciplined for taking industrial action. For items like shutting beds or stopping work then management still have the right to dock pay for the time of the stoppage e.g. if you stop work for two hours then they can deduct two hours pay only.

ANMF will support members who are threatened, intimidated or harassed or who lose pay as a result of taking protected industrial action. Where a member loses income as a result of protected industrial action and is facing hardship, the ANMF (Vic Branch) will support that member financially through our hardship fund.

During the protected industrial action campaign members have access to two forms to:

report pay docking threats, intimidation and harassment via anmfvic.asn.au/stvprivreport.
make a hardship fund application to be supported by your union via anmfvic.asn.au/stvprivhardship.

Please note members will need to upload pay slip evidence of pay docking and the date of pay docking as part of any application.