United Voice News
Hospital support workers to escalate action after government refuses to arbitrate dispute
The state government is refusing to accept the hospital support workers’ offer of arbitration and so members at hospitals across WA will be escalating their industrial action.
The workers want the independent umpire at the West Australian Industrial Relations Commission to resolve the two key issues in their dispute – their pay and the Barnett government’s privatisation agenda.
But the government would not agree to this in a scheduled meeting at the commission on Tuesday afternoon.
Once more, the government failed to convince the commissioner that she should issue orders outlawing work bans which hospital support staff have been participating in for a week. These work bans include not moving linen, not emptying rubbish bins, not doing any sterilization work for private hospitals and not picking up meal trays.
The escalation in industrial action will see the workers introducing more work bans initially.
The work bans include:
* No washing dishes
* Two orderlies to a bed
* No emptying of rubbish in admin areas
* No removing linen from skips (currently linen is being bagged by members but not moved)
* No driving of forklifts.
These are likely to have an effect on the four hour rule and elective surgeries.
The government was offered the opportunity to meet back at the commission on Thursday but they declined. The matter will now go before the commissioner again next Monday.
Dave Kelly, secretary of the LHMU, said: “It seems completely ridiculous that the government is prepared to let hospitals go into meltdown over the next week because they do not want to go to arbitration.
“The government is clearly determined to make our members agree to the privatisation their own jobs rather than risk a decision from the commissioner which doesn’t go their way.
“The government’s refusal to see this dispute settled by an independent umpire is quite extraordinary. Never in my memory has a government refused such an offer.”
