Private Sector
Industrial action follows Ramsay’s low offer
NSWNMA members at Ramsay Health Care have taken industrial action for the first time.
NSWNMA members at Ramsay Health Care launched industrial action for a pay increase and safer staffing in July.
Members at the company’s NSW facilities voted strongly in favour of action in a secret ballot conducted by an independent agency.
They voted between 86 per cent YES and 96 per cent YES to each of 10 specific forms of action.
These ranged from wearing union badges and campaign clothing, to work stoppages of up to four hours.
The company and the NSWNMA Ramsay bargaining committee have held 11 negotiation sessions for a new enterprise agreement since April 2023.
Despite these talks, Ramsay was only offering an 11 per cent pay increase over three years.
This was the company’s second offer, following its original proposal of 9 per cent over three years. The last Ramsay pay increase was 1.5 per cent in July 2022.
LOW-LEVEL ACTIONS COULD ESCALATE
Deanna Hayes, NSWNMA branch secretary and delegate at St George Private Hospital, is a member of the bargaining committee, which includes 10 member-representatives from Ramsay hospitals across NSW.
“We will start with low-level action, such as wearing campaign badges, distributing flyers to patients and visitors, taking our message to the media, and posting information on our social media accounts,” Deanna said.
“We will escalate action potentially to a stopwork meeting if Ramsay doesn’t come up with something better.
“We are frustrated we have to resort to industrial action to be heard. Ramsay is not listening to us, despite telling them all the reasons why their offer is insufficient.
“We are doing increasing hours of overtime and regularly miss out on lunch breaks, as a result of staffing shortages. We worry we can’t provide the care our patients deserve under these conditions.
“We feel extremely undervalued and underpaid. Ramsay needs to pay us what we’re worth, or risk losing more staff.”
Deanna said she had seen some nurses quit in the last 12 months and take jobs in the public sector or at other private hospitals.
Aussie hospitals are Ramsay’s money-spinners
Ramsay is one of the world’s biggest private healthcare companies, with 31 hospitals and clinics in NSW alone. It declared a net profit of $298.1 million for the year to June 2023.
While Ramsay operates in Europe, the UK and until recently, Asia, its Australian hospitals remain its most profitable business.
Ramsay sold its Asia division in December and is reported to be considering selling some or all of its biggest offshore investment, French hospitals group Ramsay Santé.
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) said Ramsay Santé has only ever made one-third to one-half of the profit the company makes from its 72 facilities in Australia.
The AFR said Ramsay might use the proceeds from the sale of overseas assets “to make its Australian business bigger, expanding while smaller and poorly capitalised hospital groups are struggling.”
“They were fed up with Ramsay pay and conditions and how long the enterprise bargaining was taking,” said Deana.
‘NO’ VOTE REJECTS COMPANY OFFER
The vote in favour of industrial action followed a powerful “No” vote in a ballot on Ramsay’s proposed enterprise agreement in May.
Eighty-two per cent of nurses and midwives participated in that ballot, with more than 3500 of them (81 per cent) rejecting Ramsay’s offer.
The NSWNMA is seeking an 18 per cent increase over three years and improvements to conditions, including increases to paid parental and personal leave entitlements, and protection of existing conditions.
NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish said it was disappointing Ramsay hadn’t come to the table with a pay and conditions offer that recognised and valued their employees.
“Ramsay is a very profitable business and continues to build new hospitals and buy others,” Shaye said.
RAMSAY CAN AFFORD IT
“We know they can afford to pay our hardworking nurses and midwives what they’re worth.
“This is the first time our members are taking protected industrial action against Ramsay in NSW.
“This decision is not being taken lightly, but Ramsay has repeatedly refused to come to the table with an offer that reflects the incredible work of nurses and midwives.”
Shaye said Ramsay’s most recent offer of 11 per cent over three years was well below inflation and did not address cost-of-living pressures.
“Under Ramsay’s latest offer, its nurses and midwives in NSW would be paid up to 14 per cent less than their Queensland counterparts.
“Ramsay staff fear they will be paid less than NSW public sector colleagues when their deal is struck.
“Ramsay also refuses to consider staffing ratios, to ensure safe patient care and safe workplaces for nurses and midwives.
“As part of our claim, we want to see shift-by-shift nurse/midwife-to- patient ratios introduced in all wards and units in Ramsay hospitals,” said Shaye.
“Our members are struggling to keep up with workloads due to staffing shortages. It is not safe for staff or patients, and we urge Ramsay to commit to implementing staffing reforms across its NSW sites.”
Shaye added the company was seeking to cut conditions such as eligibility for the higher on-call allowance, no in-charge patient-load hospitals, and weekend penalty rates for casual employees.