Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator, Healthscope, has docked the pay of some nurses and midwives who it claimed had refused to perform non-clinical duties and data entry.

Just before Christmas, nursing staff of at least two Healthscope NSW hospitals – Newcastle Private and Norwest Private – were threatened with pay cuts of up to  30 per cent.

Healthscope, which pays its NSW nurses less than their counterparts in Queensland, has refused to seriously negotiate with the NSWNMA on improved pay, staffing ratios and other conditions.

Healthscope NSW nurses are 2.4 per cent behind NSW public sector wages. Also, they do not have salary packaging and so have significantly lower take-home pay.

NSWNMA members decided to implement work bans at seven NSW Healthscope hospitals – Campbelltown Private, Lady Davidson Private, Nepean Private, Newcastle Private, Northern Beaches, Norwest Private and Sydney Southwest Private.

Healthscope then issued a notice threatening to cut pay by 7.5 per cent across the board.

It withdrew the notice after the NSWNMA took the issue to the Fair Work Commission.

Harsh penalties

On the day bans were due to be implemented (13 December) the company issued a revised notice with harsher penalties applying to a more specific list of nursing roles and work units.

For example, Healthscope estimated a direct care RN in an emergency department spends 200 minutes per shift on non-clinical duties and 10 minutes per shift on data entry.

The company therefore decided a ban on non-clinical duties (such as cleaning, moving beds, emptying bins and making beds) and data entry should be punished with a total pay cut of 29.17 per cent.

In another example, Healthscope estimated a surgical ward speciality coordinator spends 90 minutes on non-clinical duties and 60 minutes on data entry and should suffer a total pay cut of 31.25 per cent.

The NSWNMA’s Healthscope campaign committee, which includes member representatives from all affected hospitals, called a meeting on 13 December and decided to call off the work bans.

ICU nurse Sheridan Brady, president of the NSWNMA branch

at Healthscope’s Northern Beaches Hospital, said the campaign committee did not want nurses and midwives to risk losing a large chunk of their pay – especially leading into Christmas.

“This is an act of corporate greed by Healthscope,” she said.

By threatening to dock pay, Healthscope was admitting that nurses and midwives were routinely expected to perform tasks other than caring for patients.

“We are not cleaners or wardsmen or kitchen hands … we should not be sacrificing precious nursing time with our patients,” Sheridan said.

When The Lamp went to press it was unclear how many nurses and midwives had their pay docked.

Some nurses subject to pay cuts seemingly did not participate in bans while nurses who engaged in partial bans were docked the same amount as others who fully implemented all bans.

Sheridan said early indications were that amounts deducted ranged up to $125 dollars per shift.

Questionable numbers

“We don’t know how Healthscope came up with their numbers,” she said.

“For example, at Northern Beaches ICU they estimated our non-clerical activities at 35 minutes per shift but we don’t actually do any of those activities.

“We don’t know how they decided which members took part in the bans, or to what extent they took part.

“Some people who initially said they would take part in the bans decided not to do so for safety reasons on the day – for example, the urgent need to move a bed in the theatre – but they were still docked.

“There was a lot of anger over the pay cuts with members asking; can we walk out now?

“However, the law says a union must give three days’ notice of protected action to the Fair Work Commission otherwise any strike would be unprotected.

“Industrial action by the employer – such as Healthscope’s pay cuts – only requires one day’s notice.

“Had Healthscope given us three days’ notice the bans may or may not have gone ahead.”

Intimidating behaviour

She said some members reported instances of intimidating behaviour by Healthscope.

“Some managers were asking nurses and midwives whether they were union members and whether they were opting in or out of protected action.

“It didn’t happen at every hospital or in every unit but some staff were made to feel very uncomfortable.

“People were upset because it really does show how little Healthscope value their nursing workforce.

“If you want to come to an agreement with your staff then alienating your entire nursing workforce seems a very odd way of going about things.

“It’s not as if there is a glut of nurses and if you mistreat one you can easily replace them with another.”

The Fair Work Commission is scheduled to hold a two-day hearing on the Healthscope pay cuts in early March.