NURSES — INDUSTRIAL ACTION
651. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to the escalating industrial
action by WA Health workers with the Australian Nursing Federation, which
includes plans to ban both overtime and double shifts from today.
(1) What
assurance can the minister give the WA community that the minister's
inability to negotiate a fair and timely wage agreement with this sector is not
compromising patient safety?
(2) Is the
minister meeting with the ANF today in a bid to stop this further action?
Ms A.
SANDERSON replied:
(1)–(2) The
premise of the question is fundamentally incorrect when the member says health
unions. It is one health union, the Australian Nursing Federation, that is
taking industrial action. My position remains as it was last week. This is an
unnecessary escalation of industrial action. I can tell the member that the ANF
and senior members of the department, including the director general, have been
meeting almost every day since Thursday last week, including on the weekend and
yesterday. Absolutely, the community can be assured that the government takes
this seriously, that we support nurses and that we want to reach an agreement.
We have put an offer on the table that is everything that it has asked for
publicly.
I implore the nurses to pause the
industrial action. That has been our request at the bargaining table. It is
unnecessary and, in fact, poor form to continue industrial action when there is
genuine bargaining afoot. That is not the premise of good faith bargaining. It
is not appropriate. There may be other reasons why the ANF is continuing
industrial action, but I can tell this chamber and the community that we are
working day and night and through the weekends to resolve these issues for the
nurses.