Late Monday the employer wrote to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission President to say they’d had ‘privileged legal advice’ and based on that couldn’t lawfully turn the footage back on at the nurses’ station.
This extraordinary move to ignore the consensus before the TIC, to ignore the agreed position about a way forward while the parties are in dispute, is unprecedented, so yesterday we appeared at an urgent TIC hearing where the Assistant Solicitor General represented the minister/employer.
There was a brief legalistic argument about ‘legally privileged’ information that couldn’t be shared with unions or the TIC President - we think that argument is weak but there wasn’t enough specificity to argue the point, nor is it the right venue for arguing legal semantics.
Our argument stands: The consultation process is flawed as evidenced by the fact there’s still no change proposal and no genuine chance to discuss these changes, and the status quo - a requirement of the dispute resolution clause - is alive, and the status quo is that footage should be available at the nurses’ station, despite the outcome of today’s hearing below:
The TIC President has scheduled a hearing for 11 November where he will, if needed, hear arguments about the role of the status quo and the ongoing need to continue the dispute resolution process.
We urge staff members in the MHIU and HDU to report all safety concerns, including near misses and short-staffing occurrences, via SRLS and emails to the HSRs. We also encourage them to report all safety concerns to the NUM, A/NUM, CNC and CNE.
If you want to contribute towards the consultation or attend the WHS Safety Committee meeting please contact us on 1300 880 032 or assist@hacsu.org.au.
