NEWS-HR

An application for approval of the Regis Aged Care Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses and Assistants in Nursing, Queensland Agreement 2015 is under review by Fair Work Commissioner Simpson in Brisbane.

Healthcare Procurement Partners Pty Ltd & Healthcare Procurement Partners Ltd is involved in a s.365 (Application to deal with contraventions involving dismissal) issued by an ex-employee (Damms).

An application for approval of the Toowong Private Hospital – Administration Employees – Enterprise Agreement 2015-2016 is being determined by Fair Work Commissioner Simpson in Brisbane.

A carer has been sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison after stealing almost $27,000 from a blind 103-year-old Perth woman. Michelle Bronwyn Kotukutuk Stirling had been employed by a professional care provider to look after the vulnerable elderly woman, who is legally blind and partially deaf, at her Mount Lawley home. The District Court in Perth was told the victim had grown to trust Stirling, 52, and had given her the PIN number to her bank account so she could go shopping for her. But Stirling unlawfully accessed the account 76 times between December 2012 and February 2015. In total, she took $26,963. District Court Judge Ronald Birmingham rejected a submission by Stirling’s lawyer to suspend her sentence.

A union has criticised an aged care home on Hobart’s eastern shore for removing paid parental leave entitlements, saying it will not do any favours to a sector dealing with a skills shortage. The Fair Work Commission has approved a protected industrial action ballot for workers at the Queen Victoria Homes (QVH) in Lindisfarne. The Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) said it reached an in-principle agreement with the home’s management that workers would be entitled to 14 weeks of paid parental leave. The union said management had now taken that off the table, telling employees to access parental leave through the Federal Government.

The Queensland Nurses Union says many Gympie nurses, in the state’s south, are unsure about their future after a long-running aged care facility in the region announced its closure. The Winston House Aged Care facility is home to 48 residents and more than 50 medical staff. The organisation said it needed to close because of the building’s aging structure and higher levels of care needed for residents. Provider Blue Care said it would try to redeploy nurses to a nearby facility but the union’s Bernadette O’Connor said not every job was guaranteed.

The former union leader Kathy Jackson’s battle with the law continued yesterday when it emerged she was representing herself in an appeal against a Federal Court order to pay the Health Services Union $1.4 million – but was too sick to appear.

TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT – contract for specified term ss.386, 394 Fair Work Act 2009 – application for relief from unfair dismissal – applicant’s employment ended on 30 June 2015 – jurisdictional objection – respondent says applicant was employed pursuant to a fixed term contract – meaning of dismissed – if applicant has not been dismissed the Commission has no jurisdiction to hear his claim for unfair dismissal – Commission satisfied applicant employed on a fixed term contract – found applicant’s employment ended when the fixed term contract reached its end date – applicant not dismissed – Commission does not have jurisdiction to deal with his application – application dismissed. Zammit v Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation