A Victorian family is calling for an inquiry into the aged care industry after their 89-year-old grandmother suffered second degree burns from a bowl of scalding water. Laurel James sat on her bed at the John Curtin nursing home in Ballarat when the bed bath filled with boiling water spilled over her, burning some of her skin off. Ms James’ daughter Glenda Hipwell has called for a higher level of training for staff at aged care homes, along with sanctions for facilities that don’t comply with regulations.
October 4, 2016
An application for approval of the Mayo Home Nursing Service and Hunter Nursing Nurses and Support Services Enterprise agreement (s.185 – Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement) will be heard by Commissioner Saunders in his Sydney chambers today.
October 4, 2016
The Tasmanian Government’s move to enforce mandatory sentences for assaults on frontline workers like paramedics and child protection workers has been labelled by unions as “window dressing”. The Government will introduce legislation later this month which will set a minimum sentence of six months in jail for anyone found guilty of seriously assaulting a frontline worker. The laws already exist for assaults on police officers, but no one has been sentenced under them.
October 3, 2016
Public sector nurses and midwives have suspended industrial action following a new pay and conditions offer from the South Australian State Government that puts them on track to be among “the best paid in the nation”. The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation is seeking a 2.5 per cent pay increase per year over three years, extra incentives added to voluntary separation packages, paid overtime, extra professional development, new staffing structures and new classification structures. Nurses have been holding low key industrial action in pursuit of the claims including working to rule, after their previous enterprise bargaining agreement expired on September 1.
October 3, 2016
The daughter of an elderly woman murdered at a Newcastle aged care facility has called for better video surveillance in nursing homes. On Wednesday, 29-year-old Garry Steven Davis was found guilty of murdering residents Gwen Fowler, 83, and Ryan Kelly, 80, in 2013. Ms Fowler was injected with a large dose of insulin she did not need. Her eldest daughter Gail said she hoped the tragedy would lead to improved monitoring of elderly patients. “It’s a bit like the one where the [Quakers Hill] nursing home was burnt down,” she said. “I believe that they made sure that there should be smoke detectors in nursing homes and they gave them a certain amount of time to do that. So hopefully CCTV cameras will be installed because they should be in many more places.”
October 3, 2016
Victoria Legal Aid and the CPSU (the Community and Public Sector Union) are contesting s.576(2)(aa) (Promoting cooperative and productive workplace relations and preventing disputes)
October 3, 2016
Queensland hospitals could “grind to a halt” as a result of industrial action unless support staff get a better deal, a public servants’ union says. Together secretary Alex Scott said on Friday the union had already lodged for industrial action ballots to happen in Townsville and Rockhampton after talks stalled on a new collective bargaining agreement. He said further applications for ballots in large parts of the state’s southeast corner, as well as Cairns and Mackay, would likely be made in coming days. Job security, manageable workloads and budget transparency were the union’s key concerns after Queensland Health made a “disrespectful offer” for workers, he said.
October 3, 2016
An application for approval of the Waikerie Community Senior Citizens Home Inc Nursing Employees Enterprise Agreement 2016 s.185 – (Application for approval of a single-enterprise agreement) will be heard by Commissioner Cirkovic in his Melbourne chambers today.
