The 2011 Victorian public sector nurses’, midwives’, mental health nurses’ and RDNS nurses' campaign focuses on improving wages, workloads, encouraging and supporting continuing education and professional development and assisting nurses, midwives and mental health nurses achieve a better balance between their personal lives, family and work.
The public sector general nurses, midwives, mental
health nurses and RDNS nurses enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) expire on 1 November
2011.
Negotiations with the Baillieu Government and employer
representatives will be based on the public sector nurses' and midwives' log of
claims, the public sector mental health nurses' log of claims and the RDNS nurses' log of claims. These claims
acknowledge the professional skills and experience of nurses, midwives and
mental health nurses and the health benefits they bring to the Victorian
community.
Although we have achieved a number of improvements to the
nursing and midwifery workforce, demands on the health system continue to rise.
Employers and government continually seek efficiency improvements and shorter
patient stays, which leads to increased patient acuity and greater work intensification.
The Baillieu Government has promised an extra 100 beds over
the 2011/12 Budget and 800 additional beds by 2015. The Government must ensure
there is an effective strategy for workforce retention and expansion and work
with the ANF by agreeing to key initiatives in the log of claims, in order for
these additional beds to be opened.
The Baillieu Government has signalled it will only offer a
2.5 per cent wage increase for public sector workers, which includes all nurses, midwives and mental health nurses working in the public sector. Anything additional will only come
from "agreed and bankable productivity gains". This is not a fair wage offer
and shows that the Baillieu Government does not respect nurses', midwives' and
mental health nurses' professional skills and the health benefits they bring to
the community.
Update your membership
details
As the 2011 public sector negotiations build and the campaign gets busier it
will be important that ANF members have access to updates, information and
meeting notices. If you did not receive an email notification about the précis
log of claims that means ANF does not have your home email address or your
correct workplace.
Please update your membership details with your personal/home
and work email addresses and mobile phone number to ensure you receive campaign
information. It's easy to update your details. Click here to log on to the members'
area and once you are logged in click on the ‘Update your membership details
online' link.
