A highly paid leader of the Health Services Union who cashed out 12 weeks’ maternity leave as a salary top-up has been accused of damaging the foundations of an important entitlement that gives time off for working mothers. Diana Asmar, the highest-paid union official in Australia at the time, took the $25,975 entitlement as cash rather than using it as leave in the 2015 financial year. Ms Asmar, elected secretary of the Victoria-based HSU No 1 branch with the key backing of federal Labor leader Bill Shorten, also cashed out $24,035 of annual leave in the same year. As a result, Ms Asmar took no leave. But total leave payouts added $50,000 to her salary, which was then almost $180,000, according to financial reports. Ms Asmar had recently given birth to her second child. Experts on women’s employment say the maternity leave payout is unprecedented, and undermines a hard-fought entitlement for women in the workforce that was intended as time off — never as a “double-dip” cash bonus. Senior union officials are also disturbed about Ms Asmar’s payout, saying it devalues the entitlement if a child’s birth can be used to extract extra cash from an employer — in this case a union.
November 14, 2016
A rest home carer with 25 years of experience swiped an elderly patient’s bank card from his wallet. Ziena Teirikowhai Wall was sentenced to a year’s intensive supervision when she appeared in the Hamilton District Court on Tuesday, on two charges of using a bank card to pecuniary advantage. Court documents reveal Wall, 50, had been working at the Alphacare Riverview rest home in Claudelands on April 12 this year when, in the course of doing her nightly rounds, she entered the room of an elderly patient with dementia. She saw the man’s wallet lying on a table and took from it an ANZ bankcard.
November 14, 2016
Ballarat Health Services is set to defend a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) instituted by staff members (Jeffs).
November 14, 2016
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and Western health are debating a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) before Fair Work Commissioner Cribb in Conference Rooms E & F – Level 6 in Melbourne.
November 14, 2016
A 38-year-old aged care worker has been charged over the alleged assault of a 92-year-old resident, on five occasions. Midland police charged the female staff member after an investigation into allegations of assault at the aged care facility in Midland. She is due to appear before the Midland Magistrates Court on November 25.
November 14, 2016
Bendigo Health Care Group is in the midst of a s.604 (Appeal of decisions) involving ex-staffer Logan before the Full Bench.
November 14, 2016
Specialist Diagnostic Services Pty Ltd is being forced to deal with a s.739 (Application to deal with a dispute) by an employee (Mirkovski).
November 14, 2016
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and BlueCross Community and Residential Services Pty Ltd are embroiled in a (s.739 – Application to deal with a dispute) before Fair Work Commissioner Harper-Greenwell in Court 3 & Conference Room B – Level 6 in Melbourne.
