NURSES’ SETTLEMENT 

The major features of the settlement of the dispute re the nurses’ EBA are a 4 year agreement from 1 October 2007 to 30 September 2008, with the following improvements:

Wages

• Productivity increases and a revised incremental structure operative from 1 October 2007
• 4 x 3.25% annual increases of 3.25%. The first 3.25% increase will apply from 1 October 2007 after the changes to the incremental structure

Conditions

• Additional 2 weeks paid parental leave (phased in) (taking the leave to 10 weeks pay from October 2008)
• New Research Nurse classification
• Paid volunteer time
• Access to the AIRC for settlement of disputes by conciliation or arbitration

In addition the ANF picked up 3 conditions out of our existing EBAs i.e.

• ‘4 clear days’
• 48/52 arrangements re purchasing additional annual leave
• Payment of childcare costs when called in to work overtime with less than 24 hours notice

These are entitlements that this Union has already negotiated for our members

Staffing Levels and Workload Management

• Additional 300 nurses to be employed
• Enhanced nurse/patient ratios
• Workload management program

The average nurse will receive a salary increase of 4.75% per annum over the life of the agreement (not including increments). Graduate nurses will earn an additional 23.24%; a Grade 2 Year 4 will earn an additional 33.2% and a Nurse Unit Manager an additional 34.1% over the life of the agreement.

WHERE TO NOW WITH OUR CLAIMS?

• We have sought another meeting with DHS and VHIA to progress our claims as soon as the nurses’ dispute settled. We have not been able to get a date for that meeting yet
• We expect agreement over 1 October 2007 as the operative date for the first increase. This particularly important as we have not been able to schedule another meeting due to the DHS and VHIA representatives not being available
• We expect similar increases in paid parental leave as nurses
• We will be pressing our claims for improved classification structures and incremental progression, and the insertion of new classifications including Clinical Trials Coordinator, Grade V Psychologist, and Principal Scientists, and productivity increases to bring our rates of pay in line with NSW
• We will be prioritising other claims in consultation with members, including long service leave & cut-up allowance which have been identified as priorities by the MSAV/VPA Enterprise Bargaining Committee.

We have opened Bargaining Periods with all public hospitals and health services covered by our agreements. This allows you to vote by secret ballot to take industrial action if necessary.

What about using the Industrial Relations Commission if we can’t get Agreement on our Claims?

The Howard government has taken away the capacity of the AIRC to arbitrate on disputes relating to enterprise bargaining matters.

The AIRC can only assist the parties in reaching agreement through conciliation/mediation in private conference. It can be helpful to have the Commission assist in this way, but the Commission has no power to arbitrate.

WorkChoices and Industrial Action

The Howard government’s unfair WorkChoices legislation prohibits an employer from paying, and an employee from accepting payment, for any period of time that they have taken ‘industrial action’ as defined by WorkChoices.

Industrial action does not just cover strike action (i.e. withdrawing your labour and not coming to work) but also the imposition of bans and limitations on work. This means that you could come to work and work a full 8 hour shift but legally the employer cannot pay you if you have banned some work which you would normally do – e.g. compiling data; not doing non-urgent work.

This is why most of the thousands of nurses who closed beds during the nurses’ dispute have been docked their pay for the duration of the dispute – despite working for the whole of the time.

We know that some members’ view is that you might as well just strike if you are not going to be paid for working.