Our bargaining representatives met with Calvary today to begin negotiations on your new nursing agreement. We went over your log of claims which included a fair pay rise, increases to penalty rates, and an understaffing allowance – but the word of the day from Calvary was NO.

Calvary’s mainland based, corporate management seem to think your deal is good enough as is, when in reality we know the daily stresses that you are under both at work and with the rising cost-of-living are becoming unbearable. We think that you deserve to be compensated fairly.

What we did manage to get out of Calvary was that they’re willing to offer some concessions regarding special maternity leave, and that they have proposed introducing Assistants in Nursing (AINs). Disappointingly, they still couldn’t provide a pay offer – even after we told them about the pressure you’re under.

We resolved to meet again at the beginning of next month to pick up where we left off and discuss further details around your pay rise. There is still a lot of work to be done to let Calvary know that nurses are serious about pay and workload issues, but we’re going to keep reminding them.

We’ll continue to update you as bargaining progresses. If you have any questions in the meantime make sure you get in touch with us via HACSUassist.