We had our sixth bargaining meeting yesterday to negotiate a replacement nurses and midwives agreement, with Ben, Rob, Bianca, and Diny attending as your HACSU bargaining reps. A quick update is below, and you can watch Bianca and Diny’s Facebook update here.
Occupational violence
The lead negotiator brought in a highly paid bureaucrat to talk about the range of measures that the Department is planning to take, which they think will make the health system safer for nurses and AINs/RUSONs. We argued that nurses in areas such as mental health and the Emergency Department need to be compensated for the inherent risk they face on the job.
Clarifying the log of claims
The Department had a number of questions that it sought clarification on in relation to our log of claims. They stated that these questions were for the purpose of getting our claims costed. While not all of these questions were answered, we agreed to answer the remaining questions out of session.
We urged the lead negotiator to hurry up and get some bargaining instructions so that we can truly begin the negotiation process. We are told that this is now looking like it will occur in mid-June.
Now is the time to speak to your fellow nurses, AINs, and RUSONs about the importance of joining HACSU and uniting to fight back. If you would like to get in touch with us, please ring 1300 880 032 or email [email protected].