View the 30-second former aged care nurse advertisement
View the 15-second aged care resident alone advertisement
Gerardine Kearney, Assistant Federal Secretary of the ANF said: "WorkChoices is having a direct impact on nurses in aged care, a sector where nurses are already well behind their public sector colleagues on pay and conditions. If WorkChoices continues after this federal election we will lose more nurses from aged care and the quality of care in this sector will seriously decline.
"The ANF is campaigning to highlight the negative impact of the Howard Government's IR Laws on the recruitment and retention of aged care nurses and the inevitable effect on our already vulnerable older Australians," Ms Kearney said.
"In a recent study the ANF found that nurses are increasingly concerned about the effect of WorkChoices on their ability to deliver quality care; with 85.7% saying that industrial relations will influence their voting decision, up from 76% in May this year."
The survey revealed nurses, a traditionally conservative group:
- agree that workchoices adversely affects nurses - 93.2%
- don't want AWAs - 97%
- want union membership and representation - 99%
- want union negotiated collective agreements - 98.1%
- want their award conditions to remain protected - 98.1%
"Nurses in aged care know that a further assault on their working conditions undermines their ability to deliver quality and safe care to older Australians. WorkChoices is the worst thing that could happen to this sector. If it continues to dominate the industrial relations landscape vulnerable older members of our community will suffer the most," Ms Kearney concluded.
The ANF is calling on all Australians to support their dedicated aged care nurses and "Vote to Save Nurses" from the Howard Government's industrial relations laws.
The ANF, representing 150,000 members, is the professional and industrial voice for nurses and midwives in Australia
