Your HACSU workplace delegate: Matt Stevenson

Matt Stevenson is an embryologist at Tas IVF and a delegate in his workplace for HACSU.

His working day looks like starting out first thing in theatre for egg collections. When the eggs are collected, he and his team move them into the appropriate dishes for either IVF (where the sperm swim to and fertilise the egg) or ICSI (an embryologist injects a sperm into the egg). A little after the eggs have been collected, the male partner usually collects a semen sample that he helps prepare for IVF or ICSI. Later in the day his team do a sperm injection or IVF fertilisation.

It can be a long process so usually the next morning he checks for fertilisation and is able to let the patient know the outcome. Five days after the eggs are collected, he checks the embryos for suitability for an embryo transfer, which usually happens around the middle of the day. Hopefully the patient will get a positive pregnancy test in about 10 days.

At Tas IVF he also assists in cryogenically freezing and storing embryos, so patients are able to use other suitable embryos for later use, if necessary.

Matt says “we also perform other procedures such as egg freezing & thawing, embryo thawing, embryo biopsy and semen analysis. All of this keeps us fairly busy!” It can be a challenging job, especially for patients who don’t achieve a pregnancy, but he says, “it’s definitely rewarding when we help make people’s families”.

Matt started at Tas IVF in 2010, he graduated in 1999 with a biomedical science degree (medical laboratory practice) from UTAS which saw him working in pathology prior. He worked in a haematology, coagulation and blood bank at Melbourne Pathology for seven years, and then did a couple of years on a working holiday in London doing coagulation. Later, he returned to Hobart, and “when Hobart Pathology didn’t have a permanent position for me, I started at Tas IVF!”

He joined HACSU in 2010 and says he can’t remember the exact timing he was nominated by his colleagues as their delegate, “I think I was on a day off!” Soon after he was working on his first EBA negotiation – he says he “learnt a lot, but especially that to get the best possible outcome you have to stand up for yourself and the best way to do this is to get involved – I even write my own clauses to make sure we get what we want (then James approves them, or not!)”

“Since becoming a delegate I have worked very closely with my lead organisers (special thanks to Tammy, Chris and James) to deliver some significant improvements to our EBAs.” He says that he “couldn’t have done it without support from my work colleagues – we’re lucky enough to have 100% HACSU membership.” Matt highly recommends working with colleagues to attain a high density of membership, communicating with each other clearly and frequently. “This helps to maintain unity by keeping everyone informed and engaged.”

He thinks their biggest wins have been adding several levels with yearly incremental pay increases while also improving many of the other clauses.

His biggest concern for the future of his workplace is the introduction of AI in the field. “AI is creeping into our role and so I am always mindful that the business may look to cut back on staffing at some point – I’ll be working hard to maintain staffing levels while also embracing the benefits that technology can bring.”

Outside of work Matt is a big sports fan, and enjoys “playing with, watching or coaching my two fantastic sons at soccer, hockey, cricket, swimming, futsal... and the list goes on!” Lately his favourite series to watch has been Jack Reacher because he loves the action genre.