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Summer 2006

HOBART PRIVATE WORKSITE COMMITTEE

The Hobart Private worksite committee has been expanded after an election was called and unprecedented interest in the committee was shown. The committee now consists of 15 members with members from housekeeping, nursing, orderlies, catering, hospital care assistants, theatre and the central sterilizing department.

Worksite committee chairperson, Bob Burrows says he wants the committee to help people resolve issues for themselves while they are still small, rather than allowing issues to grow into bigger disputes.

He says the committee is currently working on resolving an issue in relation to the purchase of additional leave.
The purchased leave scheme is a new entitlement won in the last enterprise bargaining round but hospital management are yet to institute a clear process for dealing with purchased leave requests and this is causing delays. The purchased leave policy allows staff to spread the cost of the leave over an agreed period. For example, an employee may choose to reduce their weekly salary by a small amount to 'save up' an extra two weeks of paid leave to take during school holidays.

"We try to resolve things ourselves first, and we answer a lot of questions"

Margaret Alomes, who works in the Central Sterilising and Sterile Stock Department (CSSD)
and is also on the Hobart Private worksite committee, says that she feels the role of the committee is to steer members in the right direction when they are looking for help. "We try to resolve things ourselves first, and we answer a lot of questions about the Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and general pay issues," she said.

Margaret said the committee was also concerned about staff not being fully replaced while on leave and the implications for the workloads of remaining staff as a result.