Clearly Saturday’s election outcome will be critical in determining the industrial environment in which we will be working for the next 3 years, and whether or not the rights of working people are going to be protected.

As advised, on the basis of the parties’ industrial relations policies and track record, the BCOM of the HSU#4 has taken the following position:

We recommend voting Greens first and Labor second in the Senate, and in lower House seats, vote Greens first where there is a Greens candidate OR Labor first where there is no Greens candidate in the House of Representatives.

The Liberals, the architects of Workchoices, should be put last in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The Labor Party introduced the Fair Work Act 2009, thus removing the worst excesses of Workchoices, the centrepiece of the Liberal’s attack on worker’s rights during the Howard years.

The Howard Liberal government, in which Tony Abbott was a Minister, introduced Workchoices with NO mandate and without having gone to an election with Workchoices as a policy. It was a secret policy which was implemented once the Howard coalition government got control of the Senate.

The Liberals cannot be allowed the opportunity to attack rights at work again.

Tony Abbott is trying to avoid the IR issue. He says that he won’t change the Fair Work Act. This is not good enough as it is possible to change IR by other means.

Abbott has already said that he will make unions pay for elections conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission and claims that he will do this without changing the FWA.

In addition, when pressed, Abbott refused to rule out a Liberal government intervening in support of employers in cases being heard in Fair Work Australia. He is also on record as saying he will remove unfair dismissal rights of workers in small business and will bring back individual contracts, one of the centrepieces of Workchoices.

The Liberals have proved that they cannot be trusted on IR and should not be trusted now.

Labor went to the last election promising to abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission and tore introduce access to the IR “umpire”. The Greens, if they hold the balance of power in the next parliament, will be pressing the Labor government to honour their promises on both these issues.

The Australian Hospitals and Health Care Association (AHHC) has done an analysis of the healthcare policies of the major parties.

http://www.aushealthcare.com.au/documents/news/18360/AHHA%20Election%20Statement.PDF

The AHHC gives the ALP the most ‘ticks’ in relation to healthcare policies, in particular in relation to hospital funding and health care reform, improved access to elective surgery and emergency departments, and infrastructure funding/investment.

The coalition has promised more funding than the ALP for mental health, but the funding comes from cuts in other program areas, specifically eHealth and GP clinics. eHealth involves the development of electronic health records and health informatics allowing the exchange of data. The coalition will stop this investment, and in addition, will stop the current roll out of high speed broadband necessary to support eMedicine.

On the basis of this analysis, Labor has the better health policies of the two major parties.

We note that the Greens propose the provision of dental health services through Medicare, an area where the two major parties are silent, and supports additional funding for mental health.

Comparison of IR, Health and Mental Health Policies of the Major Parties

Work is underway to provide information to members to further inform your voting choice.

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for assessing patient response to current treatment for Hepatitis C.

Congratulations to MSAV member microbiologist Dr Volker Gurtler for developing a new gene test at Austin Health, using the results of a breakthrough discovery of a polymorphic gene in Switzerland and the United States. Austin Health gastroenterologist Dr Paul Froomes approached Volker nine months ago with the task of devising a test for the gene, rs12979860.

The significance of Volker’s work is the increase in reliability of treatment for Hepatitis C patients with the polymorphic gene. “It means patients do not need to be tested so frequently, that pathology care for patients is much more simplified, and that the cost of testing is reduced,” said Dr Gurtler.

Dr Froomes and Dr Gurtler found that if a patient had the polymorphism, then their response rate was much better, about 70- 80%, compared to someone who did not have the polymorphism who had a much lower response rate of 20%. Dr Gurtler was given the challenging task of modifying the DNA sequence specific for the mutated gene. Dr Gurtler and his pathology team at Austin Health spent 6 months developing and validating the genetic test for the gene, although as he pointed out “it’s been 20 years coming”.

We have been getting calls from members asking about penalty rates when rostered on next Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, which all fall on a weekend

To further complicate matters the government has legislated 2 days as Boxing Day, being Sunday 26 December 2010 and Tuesday 28 December 2010.

Unfortunately the VHIA has provided public hospitals and health services with incorrect advice regarding the penalties which applies to our members who are rostered to work on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and/or New Year’s Day.

VHIA Bulletin 1559 states that “there is no public holiday entitlement payable for staff who work on Saturday 25 December [Christmas Day], this day will be an ordinary weekend day”, except for nurses. Wrong!

We have written to the VHIA drawing attention to the provisions of clause 68.8.8 of the Public Health Sector (Medical Scientists, Pharmacists and Psychologists) Multi-Employer Agreement 2008-2011

68.8    Where Christmas Day and/or Boxing Day and/or New Year’s Day fall on a Saturday or a Sunday, an employee, other than a Casual employee, who works on Christmas Day and/or Boxing Day and/or New Year’s Day shall be paid at the rate of time and one half for the time worked with a minimum of four hours wages. If such an employee also works on the substitute day or days, he or she shall be paid at the normal rate prescribed by this Agreement for work on this day or these days.

68.9    In addition to the benefit provided by clause 68.8.8 an employee who works on Christmas Day and/or Boxing Day and/or New Year’s Day shall, for each day so worked, either be allowed a substitute holiday at a time convenient to the employer or receive an extra day’s wages at ordinary rates.

68.10  This clause overrides any other provisions of the Agreement with which it is inconsistent.

The VHIA and the Union agree about the entitlements that apply in the public sector in relation to Boxing Day, Tuesday 28 December 2010. All members who work on Boxing Day 28 December 2010 are entitled to be paid the public holiday penalties, irrespective of whether they worked on Boxing Day 26 December 2010. Members who are not rostered on that day will receive the public holiday benefit.

Private Sector Most of our private sector enterprise agreements contain similar provisions to those that apply in the public sector. The agreements are available in the Documents -> Agreements section at www.msav.org.au (after logging in).

Discussions are continuing with St Vincent’s Health over long-standing rostering issues in haematology. The MSAV position is that the problem could be resolved with additional staff, and the current rostering arrangements may pose serious occupational health and safety risks to members.

Pharmacists, Scientists and Dietitians

We are getting very close to reaching agreement with the public health services over new definitions for pharmacists, scientists and dietitians.

There is another conference scheduled for this afternoon. We should be in a position to make the agreed documents for the pharmacist and dietitians available to all members next week. We have been ably assisted in the negotiations by a number of members from each profession.

Perfusionists

We have circulated an offer on the perfusionists structure to members for feedback.

Psychologists

We have provided the VHIA with a revised career structure for psychologists. We anticipate that discussions over the proposed structure will start in Fair Work Australia today. A copy of the VPA proposal will be available on the website next week.

As previously advised in Stat 755 nominations are open for positions on the MSAV Council, the VPA Committee and the AHP Committee. The MSAV, the VPA and the AHP are all component associations of the Health Services Union Victoria No 4 Branch.

Elections are also due for positions on the HSU #4 Branch Committee of Management. The HSU #4 election is being conducted by the Australian Electoral Office. There will be elections for all Branches of the HSU, all of which are being conducted by the AEC.

Tony King, the Returning Officer for the HSU #4 Branch Committee of Management election, has promulgated the Election Notice as follows:

HEALTH SERVICES UNION

VICTORIA No 4 BRANCH

ELECTION NOTICE

Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009

Nominations are called for the following offices:

Branch President

Branch Senior Vice-President

Branch Vice-President - Pharmacists

Branch Vice-President - Psychologists

Branch Trustee

Branch Trustee - Psychologist

Branch Secretary

Branch Assistant Secretary

Branch Committee Members - Pharmacists (2 positions)

Branch Committee Members - Psychologist

Ordinary Members of Branch Committee (9 positions)

Branch Delegates to National Council (3 positions)

NOMINATIONS

Written nominations, which comply with the registered rules of the Union, must reach me not later than 5.00pm on Wednesday, 4 August 2010. Nominations cannot be withdrawn after this time.

NOMINATION FORMS

Team and individual nomination forms are available from me, or from the websites of the AEC (www.aec.gov.au) and the Union (www.hsu.net.au).

ADDRESS FOR LODGING NOMINATIONS

By email: A properly completed nomination form, including all necessary signatures may be scanned and submitted as a pdf file to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

By Post: Australian Electoral Commission, GPO Box 4382, Melbourne Vic 3001

By Hand: Australian Electoral Commission, Level 8, Casselden Place, 2 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne Vic 3000

By Fax: (03) 9285 7149

BALLOT

A postal ballot, if required, will open on 30 August 2010 and will close at 5:00pm on Thursday, 30 September 2010.

Members should notify the Union of any change of address.

NOTE: A copy of the AEC’s election report can be obtained from the Union or from me after the completion of the election.

Tony King Returning Officer Ph: (03) 9285 7146 21 July 2010

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A Nomination Form for the HSU#4 BCOM election can also be downloaded by logging in and going to (Documents -> Forms) or by telephoning our offices.