Recently, the Health Services Union was contacted by members who were angry about the lack of consultation around changes to your duties. These new duties included the cleaning of toilets and the emptying of bins.

Organisations have the right to change job descriptions and responsibilities but only if the process of proper consultation is undertaken, and only if the changes are consistent with the skills of employees.

The HSU was concerned that Nazareth House had not engaged in proper consultation as per clause 9 of your Enterprise Agreement.

As these new duties are outside the scope of care duties as described in the agreement, your local HSU organiser Karen Wiles wrote to management advising them that we are in a formal dispute and demanded that Nazareth House withdraw the proposed changes.

Members have now advised that management have since backed down and apologised for the ill-informed decision to change position descriptions. This is a great outcome and I want to thank members for standing up for each other.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact Karen on 0408 164 519.

If you know someone who isn’t an HSU member yet, let them know what HSU members have been able to achieve at Nazareth House. New members can join at www.hsu.asn.au/join or by calling 1300 478 679.