AWU - Lamp Online

The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) has joined the newly formed Hospital Industry Action Group (HIAG), in a bid to tackle violence and safety issues in our state’s hospitals.

The Action Group, led by SafeWork NSW, brings together key unions, government and employee stakeholders to help tackle ongoing safety issues within both public and private hospitals. It seeks to build on existing safety efforts by gathering data, intelligence and insights, to help prevent work-related violence.

The Association’s participation stems from its commitment to actively contribute to addressing violence in healthcare settings.

“This action group must drive the changes that protect our members at work and ensures nurses and midwives’ voices are at the table,” said Shaye Candish, NSWNMA General Secretary.

Health sector under pressure

A survey from the Australian Workers’ Union and Head First revealed that 40 per cent of health and community services workers had been exposed to violent or traumatic events at work. In comparison, the rates were significantly lower in industries such as construction (15 per cent), manufacturing (8 per cent), and mining (4 per cent).

Given that the healthcare and social assistance sector is the largest and fastest growing sector in the state, these figures were a matter of deep concern.

“All NSW hospitals should be free from work-related violence and aggression so workers can safely deliver high-quality care,” said SafeWork NSW Commissioner, Janet Schorer.

[T]he Hospital Industry Action Group brings together representatives from across the health sector in NSW with a shared vision to safer workplaces for our hospital staff,” she added.

Building on strong foundations

The HIAG will lean on the foundation laid by Action Against Violence in NSW Hospitals Working Group, which has collaborated with health sector representatives to implement measures that increase staff safety.

The Action Against Violence in NSW Hospitals Working Group has already claimed a number of achievements, which include the development of a toolkit to address work-related violence in the hospital system and coordinating a webinar series on preventing and managing violence and aggression.

The HIAG will build on these to address key critical safety issues and work towards safer and better protected workplace environment for NSW health staff.

Workers who have concerns about workplace health and safety can anonymously contact SafeWork on 13 10 50 or through the Speak Up Save Lives website at https://speakup.safework.nsw.gov.au/

For information on safety in the health sector, visit the SafeWork NSW website at https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/your-industry/health-care-and-social-assistance 

Labour movement leaders express anger at police raid on Australian Workers’ Union offices.

The raid of the AWU’s Sydney and Melbourne offices was part of an investigation by the Registered Organisations Commission (ROC) into whether donations to the online activist group GetUp were authorised under the union’s rules.

The Turnbull government set up the ROC after the Heydon royal commission into unions. The raids were widely publicised after the media was tipped off beforehand by employment minister Michaela Cash’s office.

Michaelia Cash denied five times in the Senate any prior knowledge of the raid.

“I can also assure you that my office did not find out about the raids until after they were conducted,”
she said.

Within days her senior media officer David De Garis resigned after admitting he had briefed media outlets about the AFP operation.

Josh Bornstein from law firm Maurice Blackburn described the raids as an “outrageous abuse of power” and said the ROC could have written to the union or produced a summons for the documents.

“None of these actions were taken. Instead, a highly organised media strategy was implemented so that television cameras arrived before the AFP (Australian Federal Police) to capture the raid and therefore seek to paint the union in the worst possible light.”

The AWU made a $100,000 donation to GetUp when it was created in 2005. The then leader of the AWU, Bill Shorten, was a founding director of GetUp.

The donations were disclosed to the Australian Electoral Commission in statements signed by Bill Shorten on 19 January 2007 and then-Victorian secretary Cesar Melham in December 2006.

The decision to support GetUp was also discussed in the union’s magazine at the time.

Another anti-union “smear fest”

Current AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said the union had been cooperating with the ROC prior to the raid.

“The strange thing is we had already provided details through to the Registered Organisations to show proof of making proper declarations on these.

“Those donations were made to further the interests of AWU members. We stood by them then, and we stand by them today.”

ACTU secretary Sally McManus accused the Turnbull government of “a shocking attack on democracy”.

“The ROC and the ABCC (Australian Building and Construction Commission) are given extraordinary and undemocratic powers to pursue working people, making unions the most overly regulated organisations in the country,” she said.

“As we have now seen, the ROC will raid union offices on the basis of an anonymous phone call.”

Bill Shorten said he had already been cleared by the Heydon royal commission which had
closely scrutinised his leadership of the AWU.

“A whole royal commission was set up – in no small part to attack my reputation. $80 million of taxpayer money wasted. I answered and attended that royal commission over two days … and at the end of that massive waste of money – that political smear fest – there were no adverse findings made.”

NSWNMA joins taskforce to tackle hospital violence and safety

Health sector under pressure

Building on strong foundations

Raid on union offices “a shocking attack on democracy”