Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

Congratulations to nurses on a successful EBA outcome

1 November 2007
Victorian nurses have successfully stood up to the State Government and won significantly in their campaign to protect and improve nurse/ patient ratios and have achieved competitive wage increases that will ensure nurses stay in the State.

After nine days of industrial action more than 5000 public sector nurses accepted a new agreement that maintains nurse/ patient ratios, as well as improving nurse / patient ratios in areas under pressure such as emergency departments and post- and ante-natal areas.

It has also been agreed that additional nurses will be employed in other areas of the Victorian health system such as aged care, palliative, geriatric evaluation (GEM) and management and smaller country hospitals.

Significantly, the ANF has secured agreement from the Brumby Government not to introduce unlicensed workers into any area of the public health system over the life of the agreement. Nurses had vehemently opposed the Government's proposal to introduce unregulated and unlicensed personal care workers into the Victorian public health system. 

Nurses have also secured salary increases of between 3.6 and 6.06 per cent per annum which is significantly more than the original Brumby Government's 3.25 per cent offer. Importantly, not including incremental adjustments, the average bedside nurse will receive an increase of 4.75 per cent per annum over the life of the agreement. The agreement also addresses the changing and increased responsibility and workload of nurses in charge of wards by adjusting the classification structure for Nurse Unit Managers and Associate Nurse Unit Managers.

The agreement now means Victorian nurses are now no longer the lowest paid nurses in the country and continue to be the only nurses in the country with mandated minimum nurse patient ratios.
Nurses have also won improvements to a range of other employment entitlements, such as long service leave, an additional two weeks parental leave (from eight to ten weeks) and improved occupational health and safety provisions.

Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said after the dispute: "This has been an unprecedented dispute that was unnecessarily exacerbated by the Brumby Government's enthusiastic embrace of the WorkChoices laws. This has been an extremely distressing time for nurses, their patients and the Victorian community with nurses forced to defend nurse patient ratios and to fight for reasonable and fair wages and employment conditions.

"This dispute was never just about the money, it was about staffing our hospitals safely by maintaining and improving nurse patient ratios so that nurses can provide safe patient care. Nurses are there when your children are born and they are there when you die. Nurses become nurses because they want to make a difference and care for the ill, the injured, the elderly and the frail. Only nurse patient ratios allow nurses to deliver this level of care and the Victorian community is the winner from this agreement. 

"The ANF is confident that Victorians requiring care throughout the nine days of industrial action received that care. There should be no doubt, the level of care throughout the industrial action would have been higher had hospital administrators and executives focused on managing the impact of the bans rather than targeting and bullying individual nurses," she said.

"The ANF office has been overwhelmed by the community's support and we've been unable to respond to everyone individually. Thank you for every phone call, every fax, every email and every post on our campaign website which made us more determined to fight the Government to fund nursing properly," Ms Fitzpatrick said.

The new public sector Victorian nurses agreement will apply from 1 October 2007 to 1 October 2011.

Campaign website http://www.fundnursingproperly.com.au.


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