❓ Opposition questions the government's commitment to addressing nurse workload issues in the EBA negotiations, while the Minister assures that workloads are being negotiated and the government values nurses.
AnsweredQoN 268Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Mr J.A. McGinty: Another one! Mr M.F. BOARD: Yes; it is a recognition of diligent service! I refer the minister to his letter dated 22 March 2004 to all Western Australian nurses regarding the forthcoming enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations. It states, in part - While salary issues are at the forefront, I do not intend to forget workload pressures . . . These must be comprehensively addressed as well . . . (1) Will the minister confirm that, contrary to his statement, the Government does not support the inclusion of fixed workloads or a mechanism to regulate nursing workloads in the EBA? (2) Is the Government refusing to include workload issues in the EBA because it has no intention of meeting acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios? (3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr M.F. BOARD: Yes; it is a recognition of diligent service! I refer the minister to his letter dated 22 March 2004 to all Western Australian nurses regarding the forthcoming enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations. It states, in part - While salary issues are at the forefront, I do not intend to forget workload pressures . . . These must be comprehensively addressed as well . . . (1) Will the minister confirm that, contrary to his statement, the Government does not support the inclusion of fixed workloads or a mechanism to regulate nursing workloads in the EBA? (2) Is the Government refusing to include workload issues in the EBA because it has no intention of meeting acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios? (3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
I refer the minister to his letter dated 22 March 2004 to all Western Australian nurses regarding the forthcoming enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations. It states, in part - While salary issues are at the forefront, I do not intend to forget workload pressures . . . These must be comprehensively addressed as well . . . (1) Will the minister confirm that, contrary to his statement, the Government does not support the inclusion of fixed workloads or a mechanism to regulate nursing workloads in the EBA? (2) Is the Government refusing to include workload issues in the EBA because it has no intention of meeting acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios? (3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
(2) Is the Government refusing to include workload issues in the EBA because it has no intention of meeting acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios? (3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
(3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
(1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr M.F. BOARD: Yes; it is a recognition of diligent service! I refer the minister to his letter dated 22 March 2004 to all Western Australian nurses regarding the forthcoming enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations. It states, in part - While salary issues are at the forefront, I do not intend to forget workload pressures . . . These must be comprehensively addressed as well . . . (1) Will the minister confirm that, contrary to his statement, the Government does not support the inclusion of fixed workloads or a mechanism to regulate nursing workloads in the EBA? (2) Is the Government refusing to include workload issues in the EBA because it has no intention of meeting acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios? (3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
I refer the minister to his letter dated 22 March 2004 to all Western Australian nurses regarding the forthcoming enterprise bargaining agreement negotiations. It states, in part - While salary issues are at the forefront, I do not intend to forget workload pressures . . . These must be comprehensively addressed as well . . . (1) Will the minister confirm that, contrary to his statement, the Government does not support the inclusion of fixed workloads or a mechanism to regulate nursing workloads in the EBA? (2) Is the Government refusing to include workload issues in the EBA because it has no intention of meeting acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios? (3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
(2) Is the Government refusing to include workload issues in the EBA because it has no intention of meeting acceptable nurse-to-patient ratios? (3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
(3) Given that the exceptional matters order that implemented workload limits for nurses expired on 28 February and that the minister has recently opened new beds in our hospitals, how does the Government intend to ensure that nurses are not constantly overworked and patient safety is not compromised now and in the future? Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY replied: I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
I thank the member for some notice of this question. (1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
(1)-(3) The reason the Government took the unusual step of telling nurses in the State that, before it even receives the log of claims from their union, the Australian Nursing Federation, it intended to make a payment equivalent to the maximum received by any other health professional in the recently settled health industry EBA - that is, 3.4 per cent from the date of expiry of the current nurses’ EBA, which was 1 May this year - is that it wanted to tell nurses two things. Firstly, the Government values them and recognises that they do a tremendous job; they are the backbone of the health system. Secondly, we wanted to say that there is no need for the sort of industrial action that has recently crippled hospitals in Victoria. So far as the salary question is concerned, we do not want nurses to lose one cent. As a sign of good faith on our part, we have given an unconditional pay rise that nurses have not even asked for. That is the basis upon which we will begin the negotiations with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr M.F. Board interjected. Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: I am coming to that. Let us set the context. I did not want patients in our hospitals to be prejudiced because of action by nurses or inaction by the Government. I wanted to make sure that we dealt with these matters properly, and that nurses knew they were at the forefront of our consideration for the role they play and we would very seriously address all the issues involved and avoid inconvenience to patients in the State, which would have been caused by a prolonged period of industrial action. That money has now found its way into the pay packets of most nurses in this State; they are already benefiting from exactly the same increase that all the other health professionals received, which was a 3.4 per cent increase for this year. Doctors received an increase of three per cent but it is not payable until October this year. We have made sure that we have done our best to look after nurses. When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
When it comes to the question of workloads, I made it very clear that the working environment was as important as the question of salaries and conditions. The member will recall that I mentioned in this place that we have authorised the expenditure of $250 000 to upgrade the childcare centre at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children to be able to cater for an additional 18 children, which is the maximum it can cater for. Again, that has been done to improve the quality of the working life of nurses in our hospitals. In recent days we have been rigorously addressing the question of security. It is an issue of major concern to nurses in this State. We are negotiating every week with the ANF on behalf of nurses in this State. There are two issues. The first is salaries and the other is workloads. They are on the agenda and are being discussed through the EBA process. It is something that we will continue to work on with nurses in this State. Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr M.F. Board: Are you saying that you are prepared to negotiate on workloads? Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: It is being negotiated between my office and the ANF as we speak. The union is making certain claims that we are responding to. We will deal comprehensively with everything that the nurses raise. The exceptional matters order from the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission regulated, to a degree, the workloads of nurses, and when it expired in February I gave an undertaking that the order would continue to be applied as though it were an order of the commission applied administratively in this State. The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
The additional 1 000 full-time salaried nurses now working in government hospitals have done two things. Firstly, they have taken some of the pressure off the existing nursing workforce. Secondly, they have given us the capacity to do what we think is necessary in hospitals, such as opening the additional 332 beds to enable our emergency departments to cope. The Government is serious about trying to resolve these matters with the nurses without their having the need to have recourse to industrial action. Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr B.K. Masters: The EBA will contain a workload formula? Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
Mr J.A. McGINTY: I do not know what the EBA will contain when it is conclusively negotiated. These are matters that are on the table and being negotiated as we speak. I operate in the real world, so let us not pretend about these things. I am aware that in Victoria - which was the key State upon which we were all awaiting the outcomes of its nurses’ EBA negotiations because we thought they would very much influence what we were doing in this State - their settlement involved two things. Firstly, it provided a pay rise of three per cent a year, which is less than what we have already put in the pay packets of nurses in this State; that is, 3.4 per cent. Secondly, it provided the regulation of workloads. As a result of the last EBA, the Government has regulated workloads. That is a matter that I would be naive to think would not form part of the ultimate settlement of the current EBA. I tell nurses in this State that we value them and we want to ensure that they are among the best paid in Australia. We want to make sure that their conditions are not such that they can be said to constitute an onerous impost on them as working nurses in the State. The Government wants to settle the EBA. I invite the ANF to sit down with us and constructively address those issues in the context that I have just discussed.
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