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Summer 2003

Protecting Nurses in Aged Care

HACSU has developed a clear strategy designed to protect nurses working in aged care.

It's about first of all, recognising the special nature and specialist contribution made by nurses in this sector, and at the same time ensuring nurses are bound in with the rest of HACSU members working in aged care to achieve safety in numbers.

According to HACSU State Secretary, Chris Brown, HACSU is in the best position to protect nurses working in aged care
with its broad coverage of the workforce but with a union that has specialist sections.

"If you look at the trends Australia-wide and within Tasmania, you would have to say that we are in for a period of prolonged upheaval in aged care," Chris Brown said.

"Nursing homes in Tasmania are undergoing a major rationalization process, with many of the smaller homes and operators being bought out by big players.

It's a process that will have industrial implications for nurses in the immediate future and for some years ahead.
In the near future the aged care industry is likely to be dominated by a handful of very large operators each of whom will own a string of facilities, and who will bring their own industrial agenda and quest for increased efficiencies to the equation.

Nurses, like other workers are going to be squeezed, as funding continues to be tight.

Employers will be hiring hotshot IR consultants who will come in with their "new wave" industrial agenda, looking to put people on individual contracts and drive down wages and conditions. To me, there's nothing surer than that. The nursing home industry will be more and more governed by the three "Rs", restructure, restructure, restructure.

It is very clear to me that nurses need to join in a union with other workers in the nursing homes industry to protect their rights and their wages and conditions. Out on their own, they will get left behind and forgotten about.

HACSU has developed a mechanism via worksite committees which provides nurses and other workers with the strength in numbers to have industrial strength and a broad range of expertise.

At our worksite committees we have nurses, health professionals, admin and other support staff working together, putting their heads together to offer solutions and make sure there is follow through.

At the same time HACSU is recognising the specialist issues for nurses. Our Nurses Sub Branch is working well, and has made a major contribution to developing and implementing the NHPPD model and campaigning on issues such as professional development and nursing qualifications allowances.

We are now planning to have these models spread to nurses working in nursing homes. We are also, via the EN Sub Committee, working hard on a number of issues to do with ENs. The EN issues are very important in terms on the future of aged care, with this likely to be the big growth area for nurses in this industry.

I urge all nurse members working in aged care to either join in their HACSU Worksite Committees, or where these committees have not yet been established, to push to get them started. If members in nursing homes are well organised, we will be able to resist attacks and work towards improving our wages and conditions.

The quality of nurses jobs and their working conditions will depend on it."