NSWNMA members at Sydney Adventist Hospital secure best ratios proposal in NSW.

Nurses and midwives at Sydney Adventist Hospital voted overwhelming in support of a proposed new enterprise agreement that includes minimum nurse/midwife-to-patient ratios for all wards, maternity and perioperative units and ED with 96 per cent voting ‘Yes’.

The proposed minimum ratios are superior to guaranteed minimum staffing at all other private operators and in the public sector.

A NSWNMA bargaining committee recommended members accept the deal, following a year of member campaigning and negotiations with Adventist Health Care (AHC).

The proposed agreement includes pay increases of 9.25 per cent over three years, with the first increase of three per cent backdated to 1 July 2022.

The campaign also won improve-ments to parental leave, continuing education allowance, job security for casuals, and family and domestic violence leave.

The proposed agreement will apply to about 1250 nurses and midwives at the hospital, which is known as ‘the SAN’ – reflecting its origins as the Sydney Sanitarium 117 years ago.

NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish, congratulated branch officials at the SAN who effectively mobilised members during the campaign.

“The campaign has strengthened the branch and a strong branch will be essential to monitoring and enforcing new minimum staffing standards,” Shaye said.

“The EBA should help to maintain stability in nurse numbers shift to shift and lays the basis for negotiations to improve the ratios in subsequent agreements.”

The NSWNMA started the campaign with a survey, which was answered by more than 400 nurses.

The survey showed nurses’ first priority was better staffing, followed by a pay increase.

When negotiations got underway, management flatly rejected ratios and offered a 7.5 per cent pay increase over three years, citing the SAN’s financial difficulties.

Petition made a difference

Branch president, Angie Adams, said a turning point came in April after the union presented a petition calling for ratios, which was signed by about 750 nurses and midwives.

“The petition was incredibly successful. When we presented it to management, they had to rethink their position and came back with an offer,” Angie said.

“Most signatures were collected by about 20 members who volunteered to become NSWNMA ward stewards,” she said.

“Their immediate role was to assist the campaign and join the NSWNMA bargaining team.

“Creating a network of stewards was vital because they were able to take part in negotiations via Zoom and report back to members on their wards.

“Branch officials and union officers were able to use the stewards’ network to communicate with members and gather feedback from the membership.

“We started a WhatsApp group to share information amongst the team, and this remains a great way of sharing and receiving information about hospital and branch issues.

More transparent ratios

Angie said the union bargaining team was unable to accept management’s first ratio offer as it was deemed to contain an “escape clause” with the potential to evade EBA minimum ratios.

“Management agreed to make the ratios proposal more transparent and accountable and guaranteed to retain any existing staffing levels superior to the EBA ratios.

“Having ratios set out in the agreement will make it easier to monitor and query staffing levels and will give the branch grounds to take action if minimum levels are not met.”

She described negotiations as “very honest and transparent. The result is a reasonable compromise. It’s not what we asked for but it’s more than management had planned to provide”.

“It’s better than what we had and it’s a stepping stone to an even better deal in the future.”

Angie said the NSWNMA “did an amazing job” to support members but having a strong branch and active membership was the key to success.

“Having a strong membership involvement in the negotiations certainly gave us more bargaining power. If we didn’t have stewards, if we hadn’t been able to organise a successful petition, we would have got a worse result.

“Being on the bargaining team helped nurses to understand how powerful the Association can be and the good work it does for us.

“We had some really articulate members on the team and some long-serving nurses had more to say to management than they ever have before.”

Angie hopes the inclusion of ratios in the EBA will help the SAN to attract new staff “because we are struggling to recruit nurses like everyone else. We hope that the SAN can become an employer of choice with superior working conditions”.