… AND HAVE SIGNALLED THEY INTEND TO REDUCE PAID PARENTAL LEAVE ENTITLEMENTS IN THEIR NEW WORKPLACE AGREEMENT.
Staff at Queen Victoria Aged Care Home in Lindisfarne, are calling on management to protect Paid Parental Leave (PPL) provisions in their new enterprise agreement.
Despite having reached an in principle agreement in October 2014 that maintained PPL for new mums, Management have now intentionally removed the entitlement from a current agreement they intend to pursue.
Queen Victoria Home have taken Tony Abbotts approach to PPL by restricting only access to the Government PPL program, essentially they are stealing from the Liberals play book and accusing their own employees of “double dipping”.
“Staff feel very strongly about this reduction of current entitlements, and intend to take industrial action if management refuse to listen,” said HACSU State Secretary, Tim Jacobson.
“The dedicated professionals at Queen Victoria Home did not want the situation to get to the point where Protected Industrial Action is their only choice.”
“But management have shown a blatant disregard for their staff and enterprise bargaining, by trying to remove a current entitlement employees have been able to access for in excess of four years.”
“The removal of PPL from the agreement will mean that families with new babies will be worse off financially, removing a current employer funded 14 week program.” In an industry plagued with recruitment and retention issues it is staggering that Queen Victoria would remove PPL, one of the only incentives for young women to take up aged care as a career.
“Our Members are extremely angry that Queen Victoria Management have walked away from an “in principle agreement” and while resident care will not be compromised, the industrial action has been designed to disrupt management and force them to listen to staff and resolve this issue,” Tim Jacobson said.
“These members of staff are devoted to providing the best possible care to the residents at Queen Vic and their decision to take Protected Industrial Action is not one they have taken lightly.”
“HACSU is calling on Queen Vic management to meet with their staff and resolve this issue so that our Members can continue to provide high quality care to elderly residents and their families.”
HACSU STATE SECRETARY TIM JACOBSON
