RSL War Veterans Homes also runs aged care facilities at Bundaberg, Cairns, Caloundra, Hervey Bay, Maryborough, Murrumba Downs, Sunnybank Hills, Toowoomba and Townsville. The proposed staffing situation with regard to these nine facilities is still unclear.
QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said the RSL has provided a whole range of excuses for these dramatic cuts, the vast majority of which will be to nursing care time, but they are essentially about squeezing resident care into an arbitrary financial plan.
“For some years now RSL War Veterans Homes has tried to impose a wages upper limit of as little as about 70 per cent of total expenses for its nursing homes and hostels, which ought to have as their core objective the delivery of quality aged care services not the meeting of arbitrary business plans.
These staffing cuts are about making these facilities meet these financial benchmarks, irrespective of the impact on staff workloads and resident care. This is an unacceptable way to run this sector, but current Federal Government policies allow nursing home operators to get away with it,” Ms Hawksworth said.
“At Pinjarra Hills we are talking about a reduction of more than 11 full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff, most of whom will be nurses. At the Parkinson facility it is about eight FTEs, at Currumbin nearly eight and Caboolture about four.
“These are huge cuts in resident care time and, given the high level of casual and part-time staff, will also lead to big wage cuts for many nursing staff. It is estimated that many nurses will lose up to a shift a week if these hours’ cuts go ahead. The aged care sector already has a serious nurse shortage because its pay rates are so far behind public hospital nursing rates.
“This is another blow to aged care nursing and continues the series of problems that have plagued the sector since the Howard Government deregulated aged care funding in 1997. The industrial action starting tomorrow at Caboolture and Currumbin is aimed at stopping these disastrous cuts. Other RSL facilities are expected to join the action in coming weeks,” Ms Hawksworth said.
The work bans to be imposed by nurses at RSL Caboolture are:
- wearing of campaign badges and t-shirts;
- ban on putting linen away;
- ban on “running” of food trays;
- ban on all documentation;
- ban on cleaning of water chairs; and
- ban on cleaning of residents’ lockers.
The bans at RSL Currumbin are:
- wearing of campaign badges and t-shirts;
- ban on completion of all documentation;
- ban on washing residents’ clothing on night duty in special care unit; and
- ban on cleaning residents’ lockers and wardrobes.
To highlight the continuing negative impact of current Federal Government aged care funding and regulation policies on nurses and residents, two senior QNU members from the aged care sector will join a delegation of more than 100 NSW aged care nurses at a march, rally and petition presentation at Parliament House in Canberra next Wednesday, 10 September.
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