Union fights Bupa plans for residential nursing hours cuts

A dispute has been lodged by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) with the Fair Work Commission (FWC) over what ANMF calls “aged care provider Bupa’s new plans to cut staffing hours in its residential nursing homes across the country”.

According to the ANMF, Bupa is changing rosters for nurses and direct care workers, with cuts to rostered staffing hours, shift lengths and shift times — particularly night and weekend shifts. The changes are happening “all without consulting the ANMF or its members or explaining the care impact on residents”, ANMF said in a statement.

“To date, Bupa has refused to provide the ANMF with the proposed new rosters,” added the union, which has more than 345,000 members. The union is “extremely concerned”, Federal Secretary Annie Butler said, that the planned staff cuts would compromise the working conditions of nurses and carers— something that would, in turn, pose serious risk to the provision of safe, quality care for Bupa’s aged care residents.

“We know that Bupa has been failing to meet the government’s mandated care minutes in most of its facilities, yet it’s now trying to reduce the rostered hours of frontline staff. It’s totally unacceptable and will put even more pressure on nurses and carers already struggling with excessive workloads,” Butler said.

“Our members working in Bupa facilities have lost weekend shifts, which some have been working for years and have been reliant on to support their families. And Bupa have yet to tell us why they’re cutting weekend shifts or the impact on the care provided to residents.

“Bupa is also proposing hybrid new role roles such as ‘Wellbeing Carer’, ‘Care Companion’ and ‘Care Therapist’ — we have a right to know what they are and what they will do and whether they will impact vital direct care needs of residents. Or whether this is just another ‘try-on’ from a big for-profit provider, already caught-out reclassifying staff roles to manipulate care minutes?

“It’s appalling that Bupa is pushing ahead with these major cuts to rosters without transparency, proper process or adequately consulting their staff. The continuing refusal by Bupa to provide us with the new rosters has resulted in the ANMF lodging a dispute in the FWC, demanding that Bupa come clean on the effect on resident care; which staff are facing cuts to their working hours and why; and how care minutes can still be met under the new rosters.

“We’re calling on Bupa to stop the introduction of the new rosters and enter into meaningful discussions with the ANMF — for the sake of our members and the people they care for.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Mariia Vitkovska