Nurses at Shoalhaven Place Care Community on the NSW South Coast were surprised and dismayed when management abolished a weekend registered nurse (RN) shift last year.

That sudden move left only one RN to cover morning and afternoon shifts on weekends. They can be even busier than equivalent shifts on weekdays when two RNs are on duty.

Shoalhaven Place is a 55-bed aged care facility owned by Opal, Australia’s biggest for-profit provider.

Individual nurses separately raised the weekend RN staffing issue with Opal without success.

Members came together and collectively signed a request for ANMF NSW to establish a local workplace branch, which gave them an effective structure to act as a group.

Officials of the new branch attended an ANMF NSW statewide Aged Care Summit, which raised their confidence and understanding of union resources. It also put them in touch with experienced campaigners at other nursing homes.

With branch organisation and Association support, members succeeded in getting the cancelled RN shift reinstated.

The branch plans to build on this success to tackle other workplace issues.

More and more local branches are forming at Opal ‘Care Communities’, with nurses and carers uniting to make their voices heard. Across the state, members have identified understaffing as a result of Opal’s care minute misreporting and branches have led the way in challenging this. 

“We never had a branch before – I think we didn’t feel the need for it,” said RN Wadzanai Nahiya, who was elected branch secretary. “On my part, I wasn’t sure how important a branch was.” 

She said individual nurses complained to management after it removed a 10-hour (9am–7pm) RN shift on weekends. 

In response, management added an extra AiN to handle administrative tasks such as visitors and calls on weekends.  

“This did not address our clinical workload and skills mix concerns. The basic issue was RN coverage not admin tasks,” Wadzanai said. 

“We discussed the problem through our WhatsApp group (for union members at Shoalhaven Place). We decided we needed a branch structure so we could deal with issues as a team rather than as individuals.” 

An ANMF NSW Organising Officer reminded members they had won useful protections like the Standard Roster Clause 56 of the Opal HealthCare (NSW) Enterprise Agreement 2023 to challenge when the usual roster fails to provide “safe staffing or quality care”. 

They had the right to be represented as a group with the Association and could escalate to a dispute if the problem was not fixed. 

Members could also use Workload Management Clause 10 of the Agreement to hold discussions with management, refer matters to senior management, and escalate to a dispute if there was no resolution. 

Teamwork 

Before their first group meeting with management, members met to prepare their case.  

Seven members then attended the meeting.  Members explained how understaffing was affecting them and the residents they care for.  

Management defended reduced weekend RN coverage by claiming they were complying with mandatory care minutes and acuity of residents had decreased over time and refused to hand over the standard roster. 

This approach reinforced staff suspicions that cost-cutting was the only reason for the roster change. 

Meanwhile, 13 financial members signed a form asking the NSWNMA/ANMF NSW to support formation of a branch, which the Association approved.

The branch held its first meeting at work around lunchtime with an option for online attendance. It elected office bearers including Asha Antony as president and Wadzanai as secretary. 

The branch passed a resolution to refer the dispute to Opal national office, adding that the next step could be to take Opal to the Fair Work Commission. 

Aged care summit 

On 1 May, Wadzanai and Asha represented the branch at an ANMF NSW Aged Care Summit in Sydney, where they spoke to members from other nursing homes. 

 Wadzanai said the summit gave her increased confidence that union activism is common and legitimate. 

“You have a degree of fear that the employer might try to target you. So, when I went to the summit and saw how members at other nursing homes are doing things without fear, it was kind of eye opening. 

“I realised it is proper to have the union, to be a member of the union and fight for your rights. 

“I had never been that much involved with the union. I thought you only use them when you are in trouble. That’s what I thought the union was for.  

“I found out there are a whole lot of other things that we can support each other with through our union, such as immigration help.” 

As branch representatives prepared to meet Opal’s national HR manager, Opal offered to reinstate the weekend RN shift as a 9 to 5 shift (eight hours) instead of the previous 9 to 7 (10 hours).  

After clarifying that other staffing by EENs and AiNs would remain unchanged, members agreed to accept the reinstated 9 to 5 RN shift. 

“Every one of us believes that if we did not organise together, we were going to be ignored,” Wadzanai said. 

She said the branch would provide a focal point for issues – enabling systematic discussion, resolution-making, and action.  

“We intend to talk to experienced people from other branches to see how they are achieving things and how they are running the branches. 

“We want to make it easy for staff to come to branch officials when they have a problem. We don’t want to lose our momentum.”  

Opal branch elections were also held at Chiswick Manor in May, with two more Opal facilities approved to form branches this month. If you work at an Opal workplace without a branch, reach out to get one started.