19 October 2006
Dodgy ballot process in Townsville under scrutiny as private hospital nurses dig in against attacks
on their pay and rights at work.
Some private hospitals and some PHAQ executive members are trying to undermine nursing as an attractive career option
Determined private-sector nurses across Queensland are fighting back hard against private hospital owners who are trying to use the Howard Government’s controversial new industrial relations laws to cut their pay and conditions. One major employer has even resorted to questionable voting practices in an attempt to keep nurses pay down.
Up until March this year Queensland private hospital nurses were covered by a State award and had access to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to settle disputes.
The Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) has accused Townsville’s Mater Private Hospital of using dodgy balloting practices to narrowly get a controversial non-union wages deal up, as nurses at two other Queensland private hospitals – Belmont and Sunshine Coast Day Surgery - overwhelmingly reject similar deals in secret ballots. Nurses at Toowong Private Hospital are also resisting attempts to introduce a non-union agreement.
All the deals were offering substandard pay and/or conditions when compared with Queensland public hospitals and all tried to exclude the QNU from any meaningful role in the negotiations and as a party to the final agreement. Two key players in this concerted attack on nurses’ rights at work are executive members of the Private Hospitals Association of Queensland (PHAQ) – Christine Gee (CEO at Toowong and PHAQ treasurer) and John Amery (CEO at Townsville Mater).
This latest private-sector nurses pay row comes as QNU members at Uniting HealthCare (UHC) hospitals voted, this week, to accept an improved pay and conditions offer in a union collective agreement, which gives most nurses pay parity with the public sector, protects all their current entitlements and even improves some. In September they had overwhelmingly rejected a previous, inferior offer.
UHC is the second largest provider of acute private healthcare in Queensland, with over 1000 licensed beds at five hospitals. Amongst its hospitals are the Wesley at Auchenflower, Townsville Wesley, Sunshine Coast Private Hospital and St Andrew’s at Spring Hill.
QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said Belmont, Toowong, Sunshine Coast Day Surgery and Townsville Mater have all offered agreements that are either below public sector pay rates or demand significant trade offs in other areas to simply match public sector pay rates.
“Either way the proposed agreements significantly undermine nursing pay and conditions and undervalue the work of nurses in these hospitals. In each case the employer has also tried to reduce the bargaining power of the nurses by refusing to negotiate with their union officials. To let this go ahead unchallenged would be a disaster for the campaign to fix Australia’s nurse shortage. Private hospital nurses are showing they are not prepared to let that happen. In fact, nurses are surprised that private hospital operators would try this on during such a shortage and when they are already losing so many nurses to the public sector,” Ms Hawksworth said.
Belmont Private
“Nurses at Belmont Hospital, which is a mental health facility operated by Healthe Care, recently rejected, through a secret ballot, a proposed agreement that cut their sick leave, left their pay rates about 3.5 per cent behind the public sector and discounted a number of other allowances paid to public sector nurses. In response the employer backed away from forcing the non-union agreement on its 118 nurses and the QNU is still seeking a new union agreement at the facility.
Toowong Private
“Toowong Private, which is a mental health facility owned by Kratzmann, is also trying to force a sub-standard non-union agreement on its 69 nurses. The nurses have resisted and will continue to resist all attempts to introduce a non-union agreement. However, at this stage the employer is still trying to take away the nurses’ right to a union collective agreement. So much for Howard’s new laws giving people ‘work choices’.
Sunshine Coast Day Surgery
“Sunshine Coast Day Surgery is another private facility that tried to impose a sub-standard non-union agreement on its 41 nurses. The nurses recently voted the proposed agreement down by a massive 36 to 2. This was again via the usual secret ballot process used for these votes. Given the massive trade offs the employer was seeking, in return for wage parity with the public sector, it is not hard to understand why.
“In fact, it was one of the worst trade-off lists the QNU has seen and if adopted across the health sector would have devastating implications for the recruitment and retention of nurses. Hours of work, shift arrangements, roster arrangements, shift penalties, leave loading, overtime and a whole range of other conditions were all under attack. The QNU has now reached a verbal agreement with this employer to enter into negotiations for a union collective agreement.
Townsville Mater Private
“But the one that really takes the cake is the Townsville Mater, which is using questionable and intimidatory voting methods to impose a sub-standard non-union agreement on its 435 nurses. In fact, this is a case study in how the new federal laws are being used to hold down wages, cut conditions and reduce people’s rights at work such as the right to privacy when voting and the right to be effectively represented through your union.
“In terms of wages this agreement leaves Townsville Mater nurses two per cent behind the public sector for most of the life of the two-year agreement. A short agreement like this also ignores the public sector pay rises scheduled for post-2007 and, with the union removed from the negotiating process, significantly reduces the bargaining power of the nurses when the agreement expires.
“In terms of conditions, the proposed agreement provides substandard leave arrangements and qualification allowances when compared with the public sector and most other private hospitals. It also allows the employer to force nurses to work 12-hour shifts. This is something that was always previously done on a voluntary basis. These lengthy shifts need to be carefully monitored to ensure staff and patients are not put at risk because of fatigue.
“However, it is the way they have sought approval for this agreement that really highlights how rights, Australians have taken for granted for decades, are under attack.
“To get approval for this agreement Mater Townsville first proposed an objection ballot. That is, you only vote if you object to the agreement. Anyone who doesn’t vote is counted as approving it.
“A similar process was proposed late last year by Mater South Brisbane and the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission, which covered private sector nurses before the new federal laws took over in March, rejected the idea and proposed the standard secret ballot.
“Clearly, under the new federal laws, Mater Townsville is having another go at denying nurses the standard secret ballot. However, when the QNU objected, to the new Office of Workplace Services (OWS), the hospital switched to a ‘clipboard ballot’. That is, a so-called independent person went around with a list and asked people if they approved or disapproved of the agreement.
“Initially the nurses were told they would be contacted by the person with the clipboard if they were away during the ‘voting’ period in late September. This was then reversed to the nurses on leave having to contact the person if they wanted to vote.
“Interestingly the result of the clipboard ballot was 131 in favour of the agreement and 102 against. That is a total of 233 out of 435 nurses. So a person walking around with a list on a clipboard misses nearly 50 per cent of the workforce. Not only is the process intimidatory, it is also, as these figures indicate, a farce. It is a construct to get an outcome acceptable to the employer.
“The extent of the intimidation is now evident, with no nurses prepared to make complaints to the OWS when its inspector visited the hospital on Tuesday to check on the process. This is despite numerous complaints being received by QNU officials. This is the extent to which people have lost their rights at work.
“If workers want to take industrial action they have to comply with page after page of laws and regulations governing a secret ballot. But if an employer wants to get an agreement up they simply have to get someone to walk around with a clipboard ticking off people’s verbal responses,” Ms Hawksworth said.
End
Media inquiries: Gay Hawksworth 0419-726 678
Gayle McCaul (industrial officer) 07-3840 1444; 0400-909 980
Mary Louez (Townsville) 0419-715 827
John Moran 07-3366 9010; 0410-603 278
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