CAMPAIGN UPDATE #23
DAY 89 OF PROTECTED INDUSTRIAL ACTION
ANMF provides counter-proposal to St Vincent’s Private management following rejected offer. Intensive negotiations to continue.
Since last Friday’s meeting, when members unanimously rejected the St Vincent’s Private revised offer, ANMF and members have engaged intensively with management.
As per the resolution from last Friday’s meeting and in consultation with Job Reps, on late Monday 10 February the ANMF sent St Vincent’s Private a counter-proposal which calls for:
- the addition of 55 shifts to the roster (16 from 1/7/25 in the 5 priority areas of neuro, paediatrics, Kew, birth suites and post-natal) and 39 shifts from 1/7/26 in 7 additional areas (Werribee post-surgical ward, East Melbourne Levels 2 & 4, Fitzroy Levels 6, 7, 8 and Special care Nursery). This is largely to add resources overnight so the nurse/midwife-in-charge on night shifts can be rostered supernumerary to assist with support, supervision, clinical guidance, delegation, escalation of care and provide expertise to nursing/midwifery teams
- a floater at Fitzroy 7 shifts a week
- a RUSON to assist with Level 5 on 10 shifts a week
- the inclusion of a clause that ensures that standards such as ACORN, ANZCA etc will be the basis of rostering in theatre/PACU.
On Wednesday 12 February, ANMF met with senior Sydney executives, including the head of private hospitals Patricia O’Rourke, head of people and culture Rebecca Roberts and the CFO. We provided our preliminary costings of the above additional staffing resources (about $3.4m). St Vincent’s Private have committed to look at the costings and respond by next Tuesday 18 February.
On Thursday 13 February, ANMF met with St Vincent’s Private representatives and discussed our counter-proposal in detail. These discussions were positive, and two further 3-hour meetings were confirmed with them next week, for Tuesday and Thursday.
Also on Thursday 13 February, members attended a town hall meeting with executives, and spoke up about the staffing/workload issues, excessive overtime and the ongoing issues of workload and inability to take breaks.
In our meeting yesterday, management told ANMF they have heard your feedback that staff want to see concrete measures in the enterprise agreement around staffing, and that the escalation processes aren’t working effectively or consistently. They also say they recognise staff reluctance to accept clinical triggers (which might not occur until after the start of a shift) for the allocation of additional staffing resources.
Management have also provided ANMF for review today the criteria for appointment to EN Advanced (which will be inserted into EA), which will enable at least 15 to 20 ENs to reach higher pay levels and applications can occur annually as with CNS.
Status of industrial action
In the context of a positive response from St Vincent’s and the meetings scheduled next week, ANMF believes it would be premature and even a distraction if we escalated the paused Stage 2 PIA at this point.
We urge members to continue wearing t-shirts and engaging in all Stage1 actions, plus the Stage 2 actions not paused. As a reminder, this includes:
- all stage one protected industrial actions (items 1–19 on the protected industrial action ballot order)
- refusal to undertake food services related to the delivery of meals, snacks or beverages (item 20)
- a ban by any nurse/midwife in charge of a ward or unit from taking a patient load (item 26)
See Update #20 (anmfvic.asn.au/StVPupdate20) for the full list of protected industrial action.
We are likely to call a further members’ meeting next Friday 21 February at 2.30pm, to report back on progress and any further offer. Please watch out for ANMF emails and link to that meeting early next week.
In the meantime, please trust the information your Job Reps and the ANMF are giving you. We are trying to resolve this dispute in a constructive way, by addressing the key staffing and workload issues identified by members. We won’t achieve nurse/midwife to patient ratios in this bargaining round, but we have focused in particular on additional resources to priority wards/units and spreading the in-charge without a patient load as a way to reduced workload pressures and improve staffing levels for you and the patients you care for.
Thank you for continuing to support the campaign for safe staffing and better workloads.
GOT A CAMPAIGN ISSUE OR INQUIRY
If you need to get in touch with your ANMF Organiser please contact them via records@anmfvic.asn.au.
If it is an emergency call the numbers below.
St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Fitzroy
Mike Stone (relieving for Mitch Hoover until Monday 17 February)
St Vincent’s Private Hospital, East Melbourne
Mike Stone (relieving for Mitch Hoover until Monday 17 February)
St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Kew
Narelle Hayes
St Vincent’s Private Hospital, Werribee
Hailee Love
