22 May 2019
Last year’s enterprise bargaining negotiations with Calvary Adelaide Hospitals ended with nurses and midwives voting ‘no’ to an agreement that, members considered, failed to address staff workloads.
Negotiations recommenced in February this year with Calvary including a ‘Nursing Workload’ clause that provides for a more timely and clinically based response to workloads.
Although the outcome was short of staffing ratios that members were originally seeking, a further vote was conducted earlier this month resulting in a decisive ‘yes’ vote in favour of accepting the revised agreement. This also secured Calvary nurses and midwives with a 3% pay rise per annum for the life of the agreement, including backpay.
The ANMF (SA Branch) believes the Nursing Workload clause is the strongest provision in any private sector Enterprise Agreement in South Australia and looks forward to working with members to ensure this workload and safe staffing clause is consistently applied.
Thank you to all ANMF members for your contribution to this process—yet another example of what can be achieved by an active collective.