Members of the EBA negotiating committee lead by Dr Rosemary Kelly and Jennie Bremner attended AIRC conciliation on Tuesday 4th March 2008. 

Although Conciliation content must remain confidential, the committee can confidently report back that the positions put by the VHIA and DHS on Tuesday were not in a form or of a substance that could ever be accepted by the membership of the HSU#4.  

Shortly after speaking with the parties, Commissioner Smith advised that he intended on his own motion to hear evidence of whether Thursday and Friday’s action would pose a serious threat to the health or welfare of the population or part of it, or if the action would raise a threat to endangerment of life.  If such a circumstance were found to exist the AIRC would then have discretion to Suspend or Terminate the Bargaining period/s between the employers and the union. Shortly after COB the VHIA’s top of town solicitors (Corrs Chambers Westgarth) served its own applications to terminate bargaining periods on the same grounds

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

If a bargaining period is suspended or terminated then protected action cannot be taken in support of your claims to leverage the government into a reasonable position.

If the bargaining period were terminated the parties would enter into an intensive 21 day period of negotiations to endeavour to reach agreement.  After this time, if no agreement were reached the process could be referred to a Full Bench (3 members of the AIRC) to arbitrate the claims and counter-claims of the union and the VHIA.

If a bargaining period were suspended the commission would effectively impose a cooling off period. This is only likely to lengthen the process.

WHAT NOW?

The Union will argue that the action proposed by our members and supported by numerous resolutions is not putting the health or welfare of the population at risk.

This argument is supported by media comments by CEOs of Major Health services and DHS spokespersons who claim that the action taken by members to date AND that proposed will have little or no impact on health services or their patients.  We note that the VHIA also did not take our members industrial action resolutions and notifications seriously and has only opportunistically brought its own application after being forced into a corner by the AIRC itself.  Why is it that the VHIA and the government have only become concerned about our industrial action AFTER the commission has sought to hear evidence?

This Union and its elected officers HAVE NEVER BEEN ASKED TO STOP INDUSTRIAL ACTION
We have sought witnesses from our membership from all services affected. 

We will be seeking to avoid a suspension of the bargaining period on the basis that it gives the government further opportunity to drag out negotiations which it has never taken seriously anyway. If the capacity to take industrial action is removed the only leverage we will have is prospect of an arbitrated outcome being imposed on the government / health services.

The hearing is listed to commence at 2:00pm in the AIRC (11 Exhibition Street Melbourne). This is open to the public. We are unsure how long the hearing will run for and of course we cannot predict the final outcome particularly given the short notice.  We will update members at the earliest opportunity.

UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE OUR INDUSTRIAL ACTION IS SCHEDULED TO GO AHEAD AS PLANNED!

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