Unions

Rail workers ready to drive the trains: NSW Government dummy spits shuts train network

February 21, 2022 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union have issued a statement regarding today’s railway lockout by Sydney Trains and NSW Trains.

Today’s rail chaos is the result of the NSW Government’s decision to shut the train network to make a point, and not the action of the state’s rail workers, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union says.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) NSW Secretary, Alex Claassens, said workers turned up to work this morning prepared to take part in low level protected industrial action which would not have impacted commuters, only to be told by management that trains would not be running today.

“This is a dummy spit from the NSW Government,” Mr Claassens said. “Workers were prepared to take protected industrial action, but only transport management would have noticed the impact, not commuters. The impact to services today is not because of workers’ actions, but because the NSW Government is spitting the dummy and trying to make a point.

“We’re ready to drive the trains whenever the NSW Government will let us.

“All members were at work, ready to work. They were ready and waiting to crew the trains only to be told the trains aren’t running today. There is no impediment, only stubbornness on behalf of the NSW Government.

Mr Claassens said rail workers have been bitterly disappointed by the NSW’s Government’s approach to current enterprise agreement negotiations, particularly over the past days which have seen the NSW Government take a heavy-handed, expensive, legal approach to workers’ legal right to take industrial action.
“We’re tryng to negotiate an enterprise agreement that enshrines safety on our train network. For the NSW Government to suggest otherwise is unbelievable. It’s time the NSW Government stopped trying to bully workers into submission and starting resolving the laundry list of safety and employment issues workers have raised.”

Among the key sticking points in current enterprise agreement negotiations are:

Privatisation – workers want a commitment that no train services or lines will be lost in the event of privatisation;
Safety claims – workers want a guarantee that any changes to our services will leave them as safe or safer;
Hygiene – workers want a commitment to maintaining the existing level of hygiene using good, full time jobs.

Demand for safe staffing ratios echoes across NSW

February 16, 2022 by Rayan Calimlim 4 Comments

Around 5,000 nurses and midwives dressed in scrubs and face masks marched on NSW parliament today, as thousands more participated in a statewide strike to demand nurse-to-patient ratios on every shift across the public health system.

Burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic and fed up with the NSW government’s refusal to prioritise safe staffing in public hospitals and health services, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) members stood in solidarity and declared to the NSW Premier their goodwill was over.

Across the day, nurses and midwives turned out at regional rallies in Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Bega, Canowindra, Coffs Harbour, Cooma, Corowa, Cowra, Dubbo, Gilgandra, Griffith, Gunnedah, Inverell, Kempsey, Lismore, Newcastle, Orange, Port Macquarie, Shoalhaven, Tamworth, Taree, Finley, Wagga Wagga, and Yass.

NSWNMA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, told the crowd of nurses, midwives and supporters sprawled along Macquarie Street it was an historic day, and commended more than 13,000 members who voted to strike, for standing up for their patients and themselves.

“This staffing crisis in our health system should never have happened and could have been avoided if those sitting in that building had listened to us,” Mr Holmes said.

“For over 10 years we have campaigned for shift by shift ratios for nurses and better staffing for midwives because we know ratios work, they save lives and save money. Our role is not to simply stay at the bedside keeping patients alive – we have a duty to everyone in our care to stand up and speak out, especially those unable to do so for themselves.”

NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary, Shaye Candish, said it was disgraceful how quick the NSW government had been to praise nurses and midwives, yet ignore the need for safe staffing or better pay and conditions to support the health workforce.

“Unless you want to see us here again, Premier, listen to all of us and meet our demands,” said Ms Candish.

“We want you to implement our shift by shift nursing and midwifery staffing claims for safe patient care; commit to a fair pay rise above 2.5% and introduce a COVID-19 allowance; and withdraw the amendment to the Workers’ Compensation Act that would force health workers to prove they contracted COVID-19 at work.”

NSWNMA President, O’Bray Smith, encouraged the Health Minister to take a closer look at the dire situation across the public health system.

“Minister! Ratios – while saving lives decrease the morbidity and mortality – reduce the health budget, research has shown that,” said Ms Smith.

Wyong Hospital branch president, Kelly Falconer, a clinical nurse specialist in emergency, described current staffing levels as similar to a war zone.

“As a frontline worker, I am the face you see at your worst – injured; can’t breathe; chest pain; suicidal – there is no limit to what we see and deal with or the numbers. And, it’s 24/7. We are humans, and it’s draining and soul destroying. Our job is much harder when we don’t have adequate staffing.”

Wollongong Hospital branch delegate and midwife, Sarah Morton, described how many colleagues were past breaking point.

“Midwives are unable to provide the minimum standard of care women and babies deserve. The pride we used to feel in where we work, and serving our community, is dwindling because we are embarrassed by how broken the system is. Rosters are being published with 150 shifts unfilled. We cannot meet the reasonable expectations of the community with these excessive workloads.”

Steadfast in their determination to be heard, the crowd of NSWNMA members raised their hands in support of further strike action and signalled to the Premier they would not give in until all demands were met to achieve nurse-to-patient ratios, better pay and conditions for nurses and midwives.

The strike action across 150 public hospitals and health services was staggered across the morning, with nurses and midwives walking off the job for up to 24 hours at over a dozen facilities.

The NSWNMA confirmed it would continue talks with the government and reiterated calls for urgent action by the Premier.

Letter of support from the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union

February 14, 2022 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

The Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union have sent a letter of support for NSW nurses and midwives engaging in strike action on the 15th of February 2022.

Dear NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association members,

We have been closely watching recent branch balloting over taking industrial action in support of safe workloads in the public sector and am sending you our support and solidarity from Queensland. This has culminated in the decision to take industrial action across the state on Tuesday 15 February, which coincides with the first parliamentary sitting week for the New South Wales parliament in 2022.

Whether you are gathering outside Parliament House in Sydney, at local rallies around the state or taking action in your workplace, members of the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU) are with you in spirit. We send you our support and solidarity.

It has taken great courage to take this action, but it is driven by passion and commitment and an over-riding concern for patient and staff safety.

As we know, nurses and midwives never take industrial action lightly. But more than two years into a pandemic, so many are now tipped over the edge, exhausted from the unrelenting workload demands and fed up with being disrespected and taken for granted. True valuing of the foundational care work that you do is demonstrated by respecting your clinical judgement about what is needed to keep patients and staff safe.

Your number one priority is the safety of both the people that you care for and your colleagues. Safe staffing through shift by shift ratios is what you are seeking, and your Queensland nursing and midwifery colleagues stand with you shoulder to shoulder in this quest. The need for ratios is obvious to us, and we are so frustrated that others cannot see what is so blindingly obvious.

We all know that if you do not have the safe floor of minimum staffing ratios, then when a crisis like the COVID pandemic comes along and demand explodes in the system then there is not a protective safety net upon which a safe response can be built. Put simply ratios save lives, and have this minimum safety has assisted us in meeting the latest Omicron response.

Ratios not only save lives, they save money. And we have the evidence to prove this.

Almost six years ago, Queensland became the fourth jurisdiction in the world to legislate minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in public hospital prescribed medical and surgical units. The ratios are our legislatively mandated floor, with our industrially mandated workloads management tool determining requirements above this minimum. Ratios have since been extended in the public sector to acute mental health services and state government nursing homes and we have a commitment to trial further extensions to other areas such as operating theatres, Offender Health Services and Emergency Departments.

You will hear from the naysayers who proclaim that we can’t afford ratios – they will cost too much. But we know the truth. An independent evaluation of the roll out of ratios in medical and surgical units showed that ratios not only save lives, they save money. In May last year, this research by Professors Linda Aiken and Matthew McHugh from the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues from the Queensland University of Technology was published in the prestigious international medical journal The Lancet.

This research found that the implementation of ratios in these sites had saved 145 lives and resulted in an estimated $81 million in savings through decreased adverse events and length of stay. Importantly, it is estimated that this dollar saving represented more than double the “return on investment” of the cost of employing the additional nursing staff required to meet the minimum ratios.

Yet, evidence alone, no matter how robust it is, will not achieve change. The Queensland evidence is just the latest of so many other prior research findings attesting to the need for ratios. We know what is required – we just need it to be done.

Collective action is required. And the courageous action you are taking today is shifting power to achieve the change necessary. Your actions are acknowledged and admired.

Nurses and midwives are tired of being seen as a cost on a balance sheet and instead need to be seen for what they are – an essential investment required to achieve quality health outcomes and ensure patient safety. We must shift the thinking from cost to value. We are worth it.

Your action is inspirational and we stand in solidarity with you in your current struggle. We continue our campaign to extend ratios to all settings, across all sectors. The struggle continues in Queensland and we will not rest until we see a universal care guarantee delivered via ratios.

Together, we can and must do this.

Keep up the great fight!

In solidarity,

Beth Mohle

QNMU Secretary

On behalf of QNMU members and QNMU Council

Letter of support from ANMF (VIC)

February 14, 2022 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (Victorian Branch) have sent a letter of support for nurses and midwives undertaking strike action on 15 February 2022.

Victorian nurses, midwives and personal care workers send our support to your courageous members participating in statewide industrial action on Tuesday 15 February 2022.

The recent COVID-19 outbreak has been challenging for nurses, midwives and carers across the country and the world. Surge rosters, coupled with rising hospitalisations and thousands of furloughed staff was the worst it has been in Victoria since the nursing/midwifery shortage crisis of the 1990s. With great relief Victoria’s code brown ends today and we are working towards the end of our surge workforce team models. This will mean the resumption of our shift-by-shift legislated ratios and a return to the Andrews Victorian Government’s five-year program to introduce new and improved ratios (because ratios are not set and forget).

We hope the Perrottet NSW Government listens to NSWNMA and your nursing and midwifery members and introduces shift-by-shift ratios. Ratios would provide transparent minimum staffing levels to ensure your members can provide safe patient care.

A state government freezing wages in a pandemic is incomprehensible to Victorian nurses and midwives. We support your industrial campaign for a 2.5 per cent wage increase and a COVID allowance that recognises your members’ work in the most challenging circumstances.

Respectful wages, conditions and safe, mandated, minimum staffing levels are the only way to recruit and retain the robust and skilled nursing and midwifery workforce needed to care for the NSW community.

The pandemic has once again shone a light on the value of nurses’ and midwives’ skills and knowledge. The Perrottet Government should not have needed this reminder.

Yours sincerely

Lisa Fitzpatrick

Secretary

ANMF (Vic Branch)

Letter of support from the Public Service Association of NSW

February 14, 2022 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

The Public Service Association (PSA) of NSW have sent a letter of support for nurses and midwives undertaking strike action on 15 February 2022.

The Public Service Association of New South Wales writes on behalf of its members regarding the proposed industrial action to be taken by members of your Union tomorrow.

At the meeting of its Central Council this afternoon, the following resolution was passed:

“The PSA Central Council notes the proposed state wide industrial action being undertaken by the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association tomorrow, 15 February 2022. Many of the concerns held by nurses across the State are also held by our members, particularly the injustice of a wages cap imposed by the State Government which is now well below inflationary increases to the cost of living and meaning real wages are declining. As fellow frontline workers, we also recognise the vital work our comrades in the public health system have performed during the pandemic and appreciate the selfless contribution they have made to our State. We express our solidarity and support for your campaign in the hope that it advances the interests of not only your members but all public sector workers across New South Wales”

The crisis your members are confronting in the public health system of our State has the same underpinning ideological causes that so many of our members are facing every day – a Government who does not want to deliver services to our communities in a sustainable and responsible way.

On behalf of the members of our Union to yours may I say we stand with you in this fight for safety and fair compensation every step and wish you success in holding this Government to account.

Yours sincerely

Troy Wright

Acting General Secretary

Spain bins its version of WorkChoices

February 3, 2022 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

New labour laws aim to reduce precarious employment.

Spanish workplace laws that gave disproportionate power to employers, eroded workers’ rights and stunted wage growth have been consigned to the scrap heap with the introduction of a new labour code.

The old laws were introduced in 2012 by the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy following pressure by the country’s European Union creditors and the International Monetary Fund in the wake of the GFC, which led to a severe economic crisis in Spain.

The new laws are aimed at bolstering job security and ending the precarious work that led to millions of people in Spain losing their jobs every time there was an economic downturn.

At 20 per cent, Spain has the highest share of temporary workers in Europe – double the EU average.

Unions welcomed the new changes. Even employers have accepted that a new formula was needed to eradicate “unfair competition”.

“We want to recover the balance in labour relations that deteriorated under the previous reform,” Unai Sordo, head of Comisiones Obreros, Spain’s biggest union, told Reuters.“Collective bargaining cannot be aimed at making wages more precarious,” said Rosa Santos, the lead negotiator for CEOE – Spain’s employer association.

Spain’s Labour minister and deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, said the labor reform was the fruit of nine months of negotiation between the government, unions and business groups. “This agreement improves the lives of the workers in this country,” she said.

‘This agreement improves the lives of the workers in this country.’ — Spanish Minister of Labour, Yolanda Díaz