QNU Press Releases - October 2004

25 October 2004

Sundale Garden Village nursing hours dispute – Up-date
Arbitration begins in QIRC this week
Commission inspecting Sunshine Coast facility today

Details
Today’s inspection by QIR Commissioner Asbury
Date: Monday, 25 October
Scheduled start time: 10.30am
Venue: Sundale Garden Village, Nambour
(Please note: This inspection is not open to the media)

This week’s arbitration hearings
Dates: Tuesday, 26 October & Wednesday, 27 October
Scheduled start time: 10.00am

Venue
Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC)
Central Plaza 2, 66 Eagle Street, Brisbane

The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) is this week scheduled to start hearing evidence in the arbitration case between the Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) and Nambour’s Sundale Garden Village aged care facility.

Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) members at Sundale Garden Village have been in dispute with their employer since July this year over cuts to nursing hours in the Village’s nursing home – the James Grimes Care Centre.

The dispute has involved work bans, public rallies outside the facility and conciliation hearings in the QIRC. A number of work bans are still in place.

In September the QIRC decided to send the dispute to arbitration.

The QNU contends, amongst other things, that the reductions in nursing hours at the James Grimes Care Centre, which took effect from July 22, have:

• imposed workloads on the nurses that are excessive, unreasonable, unfair, unjust and/or unsafe;
• increased the risk of nurses being injured at work;
• increased the vulnerability of registered and enrolled nurses to investigation and possible sanction by the Queensland Nursing Council; and
• reduced the standard of care of the residents in the James Grimes Care Centre.

The QNU has 20 witnesses, including many nurses working at the James Grimes Care Centre, ready to give evidence in support of its contentions.