3 minute read
Dealing with Workplace Issues
With Nurses and Midwives spending as much time as they do at work, it is important that their profession is not only purposeful, meaningful, and fulfilling, but also respected and valued.
For ANMF ACT members, nursing and midwifery are more than just jobs, they are vocations. Members want to feel safe and positive in their working environments, as it directly impacts their psychosocial health and wellbeing, job satisfaction and patient outcomes. The ANMF ACT Organising Team are a vital part of the ANMF ACT Branch, building on the power within the union. With the leadership of Workplace Delegates, the Organising Team works with members to achieve positive outcomes in the workplace and help solve workplace issues through organising.
Advertisement
What is organising?
In their work towards creating safer, fairer, healthier workplaces for members, the Organising Team acts as a vehicle for members to turn their issues into action. When members are empowered to be activists in their workplaces and are given the opportunity to play an active role in shaping a positive work environment, it can greatly improve their psychosocial health and wellbeing, and ability to provide patient care. They are much better prepared to deliver the care they strive to give, and that the community can depend on. The Organising Team encourages workplaces to be active and member-led. A unionised workplace is where members are consulted on workplace changes and are empowered to have their say on issues such as safety and scope of practice and members feel safe to report issues that are important to staff and patient safety and wellbeing. Unionised workplaces are focused on improving working conditions and ensuring that staff feel valued and respected through the actions of their employers.
Where the Industrial Team assists members with individual matters, the Organising Team supports members on workplace issues that many members in the workplace widely and deeply feel. Where there might be an issue in the workplace, members are encouraged to identify the issue at a member meeting, and the Organising Team, Workplace Delegate and the Workplace Organising Committee will strategise on an action plan. This action plan can include working with management to resolve workplace issues, bargaining to win certain workplace conditions, initiating a workplace dispute, or possibly collective industrial action.
Workplace Delegates and Branch Councillors with the Organising Team, at the ANMF ACT 2021 Biennial Conference
What is an example of the work of the ANMF ACT Organising Team?
In an ACT healthcare facility, a Workplace Delegate and members identified workplace issues that they wanted to organise around. It had come to their attention that missed meal breaks not being paid was a widespread issue affecting several members within that workplace.
The Organising Team and the Workplace Delegate formulated a plan of action to resolve the issue by raising it at the Workplace Consultative Committee (WCC). In this forum, the committee seeks to resolve matters that cannot be resolved at the local level. In addition, ANMF ACT members formally wrote to the head of the organisation, outlining the employer’s obligations to provide the relevant entitlements under the enterprise agreement.
Through collective action, members achieved payment for missed meal breaks and associated entitlements. In addition, it was identified that there was a possibility for backpay where unpaid meal breaks had been occurring for a significant period. Through the power of organising, members were able to achieve their goal and change the matters that had been affecting them, with a great result. The ANMF ACT Organising Team are dedicated to helping Workplace Delegates and their members in all types of situations and strive to empower members to unlock their power to organise. The Organising Team have assisted Workplace Delegates and their members across many workplaces in the ACT. This work has helped to create safer and fairer workplaces for members, their patients, and the community.
