RHH medical orderlies fight on

IN MID-2021 Medical orderlies at the Royal Hobart Hospital got a change proposal from management that wanted to change roster patterns for full time members.

RHH want to shift them from three patterns of 34 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 months to two new roster patterns of 16 weeks.

Management said they'd already consulted widely and something had to be done as they'd received numerous complaints about the inequity of the rosters.

As the union representing these workers you'd think we'd have heard of any complaints, but nobody had ever said, ‘so and so gets more penalty shifts than me’.

This is what you'd expect in any other ward, office, off-site facility, regional hospital or tin shed operated by the Tasmanian Health

Service.

We held meetings with the orderly team to get feedback, and individual members sent more than 100 emails wanting clarification on certain points of proposed rosters.

Most were worried about how an increase in night shifts would affect their family life.

SEPTEMBER 2021

Our September letter to management reflected member concerns, raising topics like no change to the current amount of lines in the roster and questioning the financial impact on members, how lines would be rotated, the creation of a relief supervisor and how rec leave would be managed,

The big concern was night shifts, as addressed in part of our letter:

“The days off following a block of night shift is both inconsistent and too short. Part of the reasoning behind the proposed change is an effort to improve fatigue management.

HACSU fully endorses the premise of managing fatigue and workload 10 for all members, but especially in shift work environments. However, the concern presented with this current draft is that there is not adequate provision for rest following a block of night shifts. Therefore HACSU, on behalf of members, proposes that rostering business rules be drawn up that provide the principles of rostering within the MoD and that included in those rules is that there be 3 days' (full 24hr days beginning at midnight) break between the end of a block of night shifts and the commencement of the next shift (afternoon shift). It is our belief that by ensuring that other shift patterns, for example day shift blocks, be a minimum 5 days' in length would allow this to happen. Other rostering business rules could and should be drawn up in a further consultative process in line with current award conditions. As you are aware, the award sets out minimum conditions of employment, there is no impediment to provide better conditions in a workplace.”

FEBRUARY 2022

Five months later management replied with the offer of an implementation committee, but the response on the night shift issue was poor, so we responded: “It is particularly concerning that the ‘management plan’ appears to be acceptance of an increase in unplanned leave. Members further advise that having ‘wellbeing’ on the agenda of each meeting as a management solution is an attempt to reduce the significance of the issue to a tick and flick. Members maintain that the proposed roster with the block of night shifts without adequate breaks is unsustainable and the dot point responses in your letter amount to a recognition of this".

APRIL 2022

In late April management declared consultation was over and the new roster would come into effect.

MAY 2022

We met with our members on 10 May and resolved the following: "HACSU members in the medical orderly department of the Royal Hobart Hospital condemn management for their contempt towards employees and management's attempts to force employees onto an unfair and unreasonable roster. Members highlight the complete lack of proper consultation in addressing legitimate concerns raised during the process such as but not limited to the failure to properly address the issues of fatigue after blocks of night shifts, not addressing the higher number of night shifts in the roster cycle, not addressing the issue of vacant lines in the roster and the reintroduction of split weekends into the roster. Members demand an urgent meeting with RHH management to be held this week. In the event that management do not meet with HACSU representatives and members to address these serious concerns then members will meet again on Tuesday next week and will consider implementing industrial action should management continue to attempt to go ahead with this unfair and unreasonable roster.” On 17 May our members invoked the dispute clause of the award and provided a workable roster to management, in effect a continuation of the previous roster with all lines covered, appropriate staffing levels, safety for patients and operations of the Royal able to continue unabated. In invoking the dispute clause we advised the status quo was to remain, which lead to one of the most bizarre letter exchanges our

RHH medical orderlies fight on

organiser Shane Kunze has ever experienced – an argument around the definition of 'status quo'! It was great to see that members stayed united and strong despite all that was being thrown at them during this process. We kept meeting with members early in the morning, late at night and on weekends - and we maintained a consistent line to management: "Meet with us, talk to us, there must be a way to resolve the night shift concerns".

JUNE 2022

A breakthrough finally came when the CEO asked to meet, so in early June we met with her, her assistant, HR and Medical Orderly management members and resolved that a roster committee of 10, including 6 medical orderlies will produce a roster that will: • Rebalance penalties to provide equitable annual remuneration • Reduce potential for negative financial impact from future roster changes • Rebalance current and add additional shifts to areas with greater service demand • Ensure shifts aren't overstaffed We have no issue with these points, our members know they have a shift job that means working nights, but they do want a fair work life balance that doesn’t cost them their families. As of writing, in the last week of June, we've again met with our members and they've chosen their reps for the working group and the first meeting is this week. It's been a long fight and there's been anger, frustration and exasperation - but most of all there's been a determination to see it through. The unity that this group has shown gives us hope for the challenges ahead.