April 21, 2021

Workplace Issues

It’s time for better ratios and a respectful pay rise 

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After a tumultuous year, it’s appropriate the NSW government prioritises our public health system and the nurses and midwives who have kept our community safe.

A strong majority of the 200-plus public health system branches voted in favour of our 2021 award claim which has now been delivered to the Ministry of Health.

Further meetings are scheduled in April and May before the award expires on 30 June.

During a comprehensive consultative process while formulating the claim members told the Association that:

  • understaffing is rife across our hospitals
  • workloads continue to increase, yet there is less support
  • there are not enough nurses or midwives which is creating a dangerous work environment.

The claim includes improvements to create a better, more transparent ratios system and a “respectful” 4.7 per cent increase of pay and wage-related allowances per year, plus superannuation.

In 2020, the government attempted to freeze wages although the NSW Industrial Relations Commission eventually awarded a small 0.3 per cent increase. The government has said it will pursue a 1.5 per cent wage cap until 2024. NSWNMA General Secretary Brett Holmes says this is unacceptable. “The NSW economy has benefited from our members’ efforts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to keep our communities safe. It is nurses and midwives who have kept the health system going,” he said.

The government can afford to invest in health

The government can afford both a pay rise and further investment in the public health system. In 
fact, economically it is the right thing to do, Brett says.

“Experts say that pay rises are critical to economic recovery and COVID has shown how important investment in health is to the wellbeing of our economy.”

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the Australian economy grew by 3.3 per cent in the September 2020 quarter and by another 3.1 per cent in the December quarter.

The governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Philip Lowe said this recovery “reflects the success that Australia has had on the health front”.

Lowe said that “we are now within striking distance of recovering the pre-pandemic level of output”.

The RBA governor has been emphatic about the need for wages to rise to sustain this recovery (see p 22.)

The RBA predicts a strong rebound by the Australian economy in 2021 and 2022. It forecasts economic growth of five per cent in 2021 and 4 per cent in 2022.

The public says nurses and midwives deserve better

Research by Unions NSW found that the NSW public has a strong appetite for investment in frontline workers such as nurses and midwives and the Public Health System.

The survey found that public sentiment towards nurses and midwives is very positive with strong recognition for the considerable sacrifices they have made and their willingness to go beyond their roles.

There was also strong support for further investment in health and nursing with the pandemic still ongoing.

The community was clearly aware that nurses and midwives have been delivering high quality care despite increased work stress, more responsibilities and a highly fluid environment due to COVID restrictions and guidelines.

The survey also found the NSW public strongly support minimum staffing ratios and recognise their importance to the delivery of high quality care and the safety of patients.

 

Without ratios, rural staffing crisis worsens

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Tumbarumba Multi-Purpose Service in the Snowy Mountains district is so short staffed that nurses who leave the ward to cover an emergency have to call kitchen staff to monitor their patients.

The  NSWNMA’s Tumbarumba  branch president, Kristyn Paton RN, gave evidence at a recent hearing of the NSW Upper House inquiry into rural, regional and remote health services.

She confirmed to the inquiry that asking kitchen staff to cover the ward is common practice.

“It’s not an ideal practice but in an emergency, we have no choice. It reinforces the need for ratios 
to give us more staff,” she told The Lamp.

Tumbarumba MPS has an emergency department with two beds, an acute medical ward with nine beds and a nursing home with 28 open beds and 40-bed capacity.

Usual staffing is one RN per shift plus a daytime NUM Monday to Friday who doesn’t often work on the floor due to other duties.

Kristyn says it is getting harder to fill rosters because the MPS is losing staff due to heavier workloads and increased responsibilities. “There is often no doctor on call for weeks and months at a time so there is a heavy reliance on the telehealth service and nurses qualified to work in this setting.

“We have nurses living in Tumba who choose to travel 1.5 hours to work at Wagga Wagga Base Hospital or 45 minutes to Tumut hospital, because they get better support there and don’t feel their registration is being put at risk,” she says.

“I sometimes have to call nurses at home to come in on their days off. It’s really hard because a lot of staff live on outlying farms.

“Under the NSWNMA’s award claim, the MPS would have a minimum two RNs and an EN on every shift, to cover the emergency department and the acute ward and ideally another RN in the nursing home.

“Without ratios, the safety of our community and welfare of our staff are being put at risk,” Kristyn says.

“We often have to do 12-hour shifts and double shifts to plug gaps in the roster.”

Labor’s quest for workplace security

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Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has promised an ALP government would substantially increase the legal rights and protections for Australians in insecure work.

Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has announced an ALP industrial relations policy that contrasts markedly to the Morrison government’s partly defeated IR “omnibus” bill.

According to experts, the Morrison government’s bill creates a pathway for employers to cut pay and make work less secure (see The Lamp February/March).

Albanese says changes in the labour market, particularly the rise of the “gig” economy, requires new laws that “ensure more Australian workers have access to employee protections and entitlements currently denied to them by the narrow, outdated definition of an employee”.

The two major parties are now offering significantly divergent economic pathways out of 
the pandemic.

When announcing the new policy, Anthony Albanese recognised the role of nurses and aged care workers for “shielding us from the horror the pandemic has wrought in the nations across Europe and across the United States”.

“Instead of rewarding you, Mr Morrison is cynically using the pandemic to launch a full-frontal attack on your pay, your conditions and your job security,” he said.

While technological develop-ments and the coronavirus had all transformed the workplace, workers’ fundamental aspirations remain the same, he said.

“For millions of Australians, the essential prerequisite to raising a family, buying a home and building a future, is a good, secure job and enough super to retire comfortably.

“Not being forced into a casual job – but good, permanent work that comes with protections such as sick leave, family leave, annual leave and penalty rates.”

Eight years of suppressed wages

Albanese says during their eight years in office, the Liberal–National government has steadily undermined these protections.

“They want to reduce workers’ security to the point where bad employers are unfairly favoured, which then places competitive cost pressure on good employers,” he said.

“After eight years of deliberately suppressing wages, cutting penalty rates and attacking trade unions, the government is now using the pandemic as a cover to cut pay and make work even less secure.”

In contrast, Labor proposes to include “job security” as a key objective of the Fair Work Act.

“This will require the Fair Work Commission to bring a sharp focus 
to job security when making decisions about your rights at work,” Albanese says.

“Labor will ensure the independent umpire has the capacity to inquire into all forms of work and determine what rights and obligations should apply.”

Learning from COVID

The ALP also plans to respond to one of the most confronting revelations of the pandemic: how many workers – casuals, contractors and gig workers – had no right to paid sick leave.

Workers in casual jobs found themselves very vulnerable to lay-offs. Casuals lost their jobs eight times faster than those in permanent employment and nearly one million casual workers were left out of JobKeeper.

Anthony Albanese says a Labor government would try to introduce more job security in the public sector.

“We will conduct an audit of employment within the Australian Public Service and, as a model employer, take steps to create more secure employment where temporary forms of work are being used inappropriately.

“We will call time on the relentless outsourcing, offshoring and short-term contracting that has undercut the capacity of departments to do their jobs and undermined the frontline services Australians rely on.”

Two pathways out of the pandemic

The Morrison government and the Anthony Albanese-led opposition have vastly divergent workplace policies as Australia starts to climb out of COVID:

Labor’s plan for job security

  • ‘Job security’ explicitly inserted into the Fair Work Act
  • rights for gig economy workers through the Fair Work Commission
  • portable entitlements for workersin insecure industries
  • casual work properly defined in law
  • a crackdown on ’cowboy’ labour hire firms to guarantee same job, same pay
  • a cap on back-to-back short-term contracts for the same role
  • more secure public sector jobs by ending inappropriate temporary contracts
  • government contracts to companies and organisations that offer secure work for their employees.

 

The Morrison government’s IR bill

  • Suspends the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT)
  • enables employers to define any employee as a casual with no leave entitlements or job security
  • allows employers to increase hours for part time employees without an overtime premium
  • gives employers the power to put part-time employees on the same hours that casuals currently have but at lower pay rates
  • allows employers to dictate “flexible work directions” to employees to perform new types of work or at new locations
  • contains penalties for wage theft that are inferior to those found in state laws
  • allows for Greenfields agreements on new “major” projects (which could be a hospital) that would prevent employees from negotiating better conditions through industrial action for up to eight years.

Depression, burnout, insomnia, headaches: how a toxic and sexist workplace culture can affect your health

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As allegations of rape and sexual assault engulf Australian federal politics, several current and former female staffers and politicians have come forward to share their stories of a culture of toxic masculinity within Australia’s political bubble.

It’s unfortunate that while gender roles are evolving at home, gender inequality and overt sexism remain prevalent in Australian political culture and in many workplaces across the country.

While the effects of a culture of toxic masculinity are most detrimental for the victims, other employees in workplaces and the wider community can also be negatively impacted.

This opens up a broader question: how does a toxic and sexist workplace culture affect the health and well-being of employees and organisations?

What does a toxic and sexist workplace look like?

A culture of toxic masculinity is a hostile work environment that undermines women. It’s also known as “masculinity contest culture”, which is characterised by hyper-competition, heavy workloads, long hours, assertiveness and extreme risk-taking. It’s worth noting this type of culture isn’t good for men, either.

Such workplaces often feature “win or die” organisational cultures that focus on personal gain and advancement at the expense of other employees. Many employees embedded in such a culture adopt a “mine’s bigger than yours” contest for workloads, work hours and work resources.

These masculinity contest cultures are prevalent in a wide range of industries, such as medicine, finance, engineering, law, politics, sports, police, fire, corrections, military services, tech organisations and increasingly within our universities.

Microaggressions are common behaviours in workplaces steeped with a masculinity contest culture. These include getting interrupted by men in meetings or being told to dress “appropriately” in a certain way. There are also overtly dominating behaviours such as sexual harassment and violence.

These behaviours tend to keep men on top and reinforce a toxic leadership style involving abusive behaviours such as bullying or controlling others.

At a very basic level, workplaces should afford women safety and justice. But women’s issues are left unaddressed in many workplaces, and many fail to provide women employees with psychological safety or the ability to speak up without being punished or humiliated.

This might be because leaders in the organisation are ill-equipped to deal with these issues, feel uncomfortable bringing them up or, in some cases, are sadly not interested at all.

How does a toxic culture affect our health?

Evidence suggests a toxic workplace culture can negatively affect employees’ psychological, emotional and physical health.

Emotional effects include a higher likelihood of negative emotions such as anger, disappointment, disgust, fear, frustration and humiliation.

As these negative emotions build, they can lead to stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, cynicism, a lack of motivation and feelings of self-doubt.

Research also points to increased chances of physical symptoms, such as hair loss, insomnia, weight loss or gain, headaches and migraines.

Employees in toxic workplaces tend to have poorer overall well-being, and are more likely to be withdrawn and isolated at work and in their personal lives. Over time, this leads to absenteeism, and if problems aren’t addressed, victims may eventually leave the organisation.

For some victims who may not have advanced coping skills, a toxic culture can lead to a downward mental and physical health spiral and contribute to severe long-term mental illness. They may also engage in displaced aggression, in which they bring home their negative emotions and experiences and take out their frustrations on family members.

How can workplaces change?

Workplaces aiming to make a real change should start by promoting an open culture where issues can be discussed via multiple formal and informal feedback channels.

One option is formal survey mechanisms that are anonymous, so employees can be open about their concerns and feel less intimidated by the process.

A good first step is having leaders trained to address these issues.

Traditionally, workplace interventions have focused on victims themselves, putting the onus on them to do the work and come forward. However, a healthy workplace culture should see leaders actively seeking feedback to make sure any forms of toxic masculinity are stamped out.

It’s a shared responsibility, and the onus shouldn’t be solely on employees, but leaders, too.

Xi Wen (Carys) Chan, Lecturer in Organisational Psychology, Griffith University and Paula Brough, Professor of Organisational Psychology, Griffith University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Your entitlements when daylight savings end

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Are you working this long weekend when daylight savings time ends? Make sure you’re across what your entitlements are.

If you are working a shift when daylight saving time ends this long weekend (3am, Sunday 4 April), you may lose an hour of pay. However, you may recoup that pay if you are working when it begins again (2am, Sunday, 3 October).

This is a longstanding practice in the public health system, determined by a decision of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission in 1971. It is consistent with advice of the Fair Work Ombudsman in relation to the private sector.

If you work in the private sector, check your agreement in the first instance to see if there are any references to daylight saving time in it. If not, employees who work overnight when daylight saving time ends are paid according to the clock’s start and finish times. This means, you will work one hour more but will not be paid for that extra hour.

The reason for this approach is, it is simple from an administrative perspective and facilitates appropriate staffing coverage without disturbing the contracted hours of employees.

​​​​​To ensure fairness, employers should, as far as practicable, roster the same staff on shifts that cover the commencement and conclusion of daylight saving time.

Please note in the public health system, if you’re working overtime when the clock goes back an hour, you should be paid for the time actually worked, and not by your start and finish time.

If you’re still unsure about how you should be paid this long weekend, and you are an NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association member, please don’t hesitate to get in contact here.

You can join the Association here.

Your penalty rates this Easter and ANZAC Day

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In the lead up to the Easter and ANZAC Day public holidays, nurses and midwives asked us to clarify what they’re entitled to. Pete from the Member Rights Centre at the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association has kindly collated this information to make sure you don’t miss out.

In New South Wales, the gazetted public holiday for April are:

  • Good Friday (2 April)
  • Easter Saturday (3 April)
  • Easter Sunday (4 April)
  • Easter Monday (5 April)
  • ANZAC Day (25 April)

In the public health system, the entitlements for public holidays are set out in the Public Health System Nurses and Midwives’ (State) Award 2019 and depend upon your employment status and how you are rostered. The below table sets out a summary of the entitlements

In relation to those full time employees who do not work on a seven day basis, a day worker is a worker who works their ordinary hours from Monday to Friday inclusive and who commences work on such days at or after 6AM and before 10AM, otherwise than as part of the shift system. A shift worker is a worker who is not a day worker.In each case, the pay rates are in place of any shift penalties that would have otherwise been paid had the day not been a public holiday.

In relation to permanent part time employees the award provides at 29.PART I.(v) that when a public holiday occurs on a day of the week on which an employee regularly works, that employee shall be entitled to observe the public holiday without loss of pay. The employee’s roster must not be changed to avoid payment for the public holiday.

In the private system, public holiday entitlements will differ from employer to employer. To find the award or enterprise agreement that applies to you please click here.

If there’s an issue with your public holiday pay please notify your manager or payroll office in the first instance to discuss this issue. NSWNMA can assist you if you’re unable to resolve the problem with your employer.

Should you require advice about your public holiday entitlements please do not hesitate to contact our Information Team on 02 8595 1234 (Metro) or 1300 367 962 (Rural) or by emailing us at gensec@nswnma.asn.au.

Have further questions? NSWNMA Members can contact the Association for support here. To find out more benefits of being a member or to join the NSWNMA, visit this page.