Cairns Private Hospital: Time for you to decide
Published: 16 November 2009
Cairns Private Hospital EB Negotiations Update #2
Negotiations for a new enterprise agreement for Cairns Private Hospital nurses have concluded. Now it’s time for nurses to decide whether they wish to accept the employer’s offer.
Coming on the tail of the Ramsay General Agreement, the negotiations for a new agreement for Cairns have been short and sharp.
Cairns Private Hospital management have rejected many of the site specific items of claim put forward by nurses, such as better wages, two days’ natural disaster leave, an extra weeks’ annual leave for permanent night shift employees, access to TUTA training and increases to on-call allowances.
They have instead adopted an approach of bringing Cairns Private Hospital in line with the other Ramsey sites. This means some improvement to some allowances that have fallen behind and some improvements to the way the nurses can access their pre-existing leave entitlements, as well as differential wage increases based on the other Ramsay sites’ rates.
QNU representatives successfully defended your employer’s attempts to remove some of your existing conditions such as including overtime performed after a shift when on-call as an occasion for the purpose of an extra week of annual leave and the removal of access to sick leave during natural disasters.
What is on offer?
- Agreement length: Agreement commencing from the date of approval and expiring 30 June 2012.
- Wages:
from October 2009: differential wage increases between 1.59% to 4.53% depending on your current classification and pay point (please see wages schedule attached for full details)
from October 2010: 4%
from October 2011: 4%
(Note: A full proposed Wages Schedule including all classifications and paypoints and the proposed percentage increases is attached to this newsletter) - Afternoon shift penalty definition: changed to include shifts that commence before 12 midday but have the majority of hours worked after 3pm
- In-charge of shift allowance increase: over the life of the agreement, in-charge of shift will increase from $7 to a final figure of $11.25
- On-call allowances: only the Saturday on-call rate will increase during the life of the agreement from $41.12 to $43.20 by October 2011
- Qualifications allowance: to increase from $7 per week for post graduate qualification to $16.87 over the life of the agreement. For Masters and PhD, increases from $15 to $33.75 by October 2011
- Professional development support: a process for requesting professional development
- Paid maternity leave: access to the current full eight weeks up front rather than broken into two periods of six weeks and two weeks upon return
- Part time employees: a reminder that under the award you can request a review of your contracted hours as usually required if they have increased
- Monthly ward/unit meetings: introduced to ensure employees are consulted and included in decisions
- Christmas Day 100% loading: option to swap loading from Show Day to Christmas Day
- Christmas rosters: rosters to be issued six weeks before Christmas but subject to change due to unforseen circumstances
- Extended long service leave: taking long service leave at twice the duration at half pay
- Extended annual leave: at half pay for double the duration
- Payout of annual leave: payout of an accrued amount in excess of five weeks if requested by the employee
- Notice of termination by employee: to increase from one week to two weeks’ notice
- EN inclusion in return to work after absence provisions
- X-ray lead apron: changes to breaks provision.
How do I vote?
Every nurse needs to have their say as to whether or not they wish to approve the agreement. You decide by considering the offer, reviewing the agreement and casting your vote.
Votes will be counted on 7 December 2009
Timeline for consideration and ballot process:-
- Monday 16 November 2009: From this date the proposed Agreement is available in your workplace for you to read and consider;
- Monday 30 November 2009: Ballot papers issued and ballot opened;
- Monday 7 December 2009: 12 midday ballot closes. All the ballots will be counted and the results announced.
QNU Information Sessions during consideration period
If you have any questions about the content of the Agreement, come along to an QNU Information Session.
| Date |
Time |
Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday 14 November | 12pm to 1pm | Cairns Private Hospital, ground floor meeting room |
| Sunday 15 November | 12pm to 1pm | Cairns Private Hospital, ground floor meeting room |
| Saturday 21 November | 3.30pm to 5pm | Cairns Private Hospital, ground floor meeting room |
| Wednesday 25 November | 6.30pm to 7.30pm | Cairns Private Hospital, ground floor meeting room |
| Thursday 26 November | 11.30am to 12.30pm | Cairns Private Hospital, ground floor meeting room |
| Saturday 28 November | 11.30am to 1pm | Cairns Private Hospital, ground floor meeting room |
| Monday 23 November | 11.30am to 12.45pm | Cairns Day Surgery (room to be announced) |
Remember—to have your say you must cast your vote. We encourage all members to attend the meetings being held during the consideration period.
Contact:
Phone: