Low Healthe Care offer gets thumbs down

Nurses and midwives have said ‘No’ to a substandard agreement proposed by the owners of Healthe Care Surgical.

Nurses and midwives employed by Healthe Care Surgical (HCS) in NSW have voted strongly to reject an unsatisfactory company offer for a new enterprise agreement.

In a secret ballot, 79 per cent of voting employees voted ‘No’ to the offer.

The company had proposed a mere 2.5 per cent annual wage increase with no meaningful improvement to unsafe staffing levels.

The NSWNMA’s assistant general secretary, Michael Whaites, said the vote forced HCS back to the negotiating table.

“NSWNMA members made it clear throughout almost 12 months of negotiations that staffing levels across all facilities are unsafe,” he said.

“Members felt strongly that the agreement should have safe nurseto-patient ratios, and pay rises sufficient to meet increases in the cost of living.”

HCS employs about 1700 nurses at 12 private hospitals in NSW. It is owned by Pacific Equity Partners, a private equity firm.

Pay Offer A Slap In The Face

The NSWNMA is conducting negotiations through a Bargaining Organising Committee (BOC). It is made up of NSWNMA officials and about 20 representatives from NSWNMA branches across the HCS network.

One BOC member, nurse Kylie Stirling, described the offer of a 2.5 per cent per year pay rise as “nothing short of demoralising and a big slap in the face”.

“This would put Healthe Care nurses at a huge financial disadvantage,” said Kylie, who is president of the NSWNMA’s Maitland Private Hospital branch.

“We’re not asking for anything unreasonable, just a fair pay rise that is in line with the increasing cost of living.”

She pointed out that interest rates, and food, petrol and electricity prices are all going up.

“If we don’t get a fair and decent pay rise that reflects all of the hard work the nurses undertake every day, we will be even further behind the increasing cost of living and rising inflation.”

Unsafe Workloads

Kylie said nurses’ workloads are constantly increasing “with the patients getting sicker, with higher care needs and increasing presentations”.

“At my hospital, a ward nurse on day or evening shift can at times be looking after eight patients, including general care and managing any deteriorating patients.

“This can increase with unexpected sick leave, when staff are unable to be replaced, putting an even greater burden on the staff.

“At night, it could be 1:10 with just two nurses on the ward.

“I’ve never seen these levels of staffing in my 30 years of nursing.

“With those sorts of numbers, you can’t give the care you want to give and the patients deserve.

“We are nurses and we do what we do because we care. We have hung in there for a long time, but now it’s getting to a crisis point.

“Nurses are really starting to feel the effects of inadequate staffing on themselves, their families and on the patients.”

Like other HCS branches, Maitland Private Hospital branch has a dedicated WhatsApp group and private Facebook group for branch members and officials to discuss issues at their hospital.

Kylie said that as a BOC member, she attended all Zoom meetings with union officials and other branch reps, and all negotiation sessions with management.

“That means I’ve been able to take accurate information back to my branch and the members and keep them up to date.”

“As a BOC member, you feel vulnerable at times because you are going into these meetings with upper management and fighting for better conditions for nurses.”

“However, something has to change. HCS needs to listen to its nurses because we have had enough and we’re not going to take it anymore.” n