Forums

There’s a popular myth that being a professional in health means accepting high workloads, mounting personal pressure and performing whatever amount of unpaid work it takes to get our work done. Being a medical scientist, a psychologist or a pharmacist, by the very nature of the professions and the work, means being a professional. Too often when discussing workplace issues like increasing workloads and insufficient staff available to cover workloads the notion of accepting this as part of a professional role is raised. Excessive workloads are not about you and your level of professionalism; it’s increasingly clear excessive workloads are about management refusing to properly manage workloads by ensuring the availability of sufficient staff. It’s about management lacking the professionalism they demand of you. What we can say about being ‘professional’ is that there is nothing professional in allowing your health to deteriorate because executive managements are seemingly incapable of managing workloads appropriately. There is nothing ‘professional’ about having excessive workloads because managements refuse to employ sufficient staff to do the work. And there is nothing ‘professional’ about working through meal breaks and after rostered shifts in order to get more work done. In fact, excessive workloads in many respects rob you of your ability to be professional. It’s when you’re stressed and overworked that you’re most at risk of making an error. At its core these issues speak to the growing concern that many vital services are reliant on you doing unpaid work; and an unspoken workplace culture of doing unpaid work. Use this forum to explore these issues; the ways we can work together to fight back; and what you can do in your workplaces.

Right now the Union is preparing for public sector enterprise bargaining to commence around June this year. And to make sure we’re fighting for the best outcomes possible we have to know what the key issues are for you and your colleagues. That’s why the Union has created this space so you and your colleagues can discuss and debate the merits of various matters in the upcoming negotiations. It’s crucial that we work together as we face a more hostile industrial landscape with the Turnbull Government threatening to attack our rights at work; and a government that has little regard for public healthcare. I look forward to working with you to ensure we get a great deal in 2016. - Paul Elliott