Jun21

Lifeblood: Another Public Health Service Offering Dud Deals

Posted on 6-21-24

Unfortunately, management at Lifeblood seemed to be following in the footsteps of Melbourne Pathology and refusing to acknowledge the unique workforce they have. However, Lifeblood’s management have decided they want to alienate their entire workforce with dud deals. Members at Lifeblood are working stave off a proposed amalgamation of over five Enterprise Agreements, which would result in many entitlements we have worked hard to achieve being axed, reduced or grandfathered. Lifeblood wants to get rid of incremental pay-career progression so that management can decide how much to pay people. Of course, this means a totally opaque process and no opportunity to progress once your salary has been ‘decided’, which also means a breakdown in career progression opportunities. Members are also fighting for a fifth week annual leave. And just like the management at Melbourne Pathology, Lifeblood is insisting they can’t afford to give members a fair deal while returning $110 million in funding to the government as ‘unneeded surplus’ over the past few years. This past Tuesday (18 June) we held a joint protected action with members from the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association. You might have seen us dancing and waving signs out the front of Lifeblood’s main...

Jan23

No Pay? No Way!

Over the past decades staff reductions forced through budget cuts has caused workloads to steadily increase. Health managers have long stopped thinking about how we cope with extra work. We are just expected to do more and more work in the same amount of time. In 2015, hundreds of thousands of hours of unpaid time will be worked to cope with unreasonably high workloads. There is growing evidence of a systemic reliance on unpaid work to keep many services afloat. And this will only increase with cuts to health spending announced in the Federal budget. As workloads continue to grow without increases in staff, the pressure is mounting on already over-worked and stressed staff. The Union wants to use the campaign to: Reduce unsustainably high workloadsEnforce Workload Clauses in our AgreementsHave fewer members doing unpaid workEliminate injuries arising from high workloads; andEngage more members in the work of the Union Ready to take action? Find out what you can do right now to support the campaign. How much unpaid work is done? We know that members are working longer hours without being properly compensated. From our work on the Public Sector agreement in 2011-2012, we know that 2503 members...

Jan22

Anna Stewart Memorial Project

What is the Anna Stewart Memorial Project? Designed to encourage more women to be present and active in unions, the Anna Stewart Memorial Project is a structured, two week long internship program consisting of two days each week at Trades Hall, with the remaining days in a union of choice. In some cases women nominated move outside their comfort zone and experience vastly different sectors. Each participant may represent diverse workplace settings, for example finance, education, health, transport and maritime; enabling each participant exposure to a rich pool of skills, vision and experiences. Women form a critical voice and can influence the culture of a workplace. Within unions and at the workplace, women have the immediate capacity to identify workplace aspects and assist in accommodating changing demands through consultation and inclusion. The Anna Stewart Memorial Project has highlighted the way forward for women who are motivated to support other women and continue to nurture voice, opportunity and change. Unions are invited to participate in the Project in a number of ways. They may: Nominate a woman member and either train her in their union office for the two weeks or for one of the two weeks in a “hosting”...