CV and mad panic behaviour

[madbluboy]

A grad certificate in critical care is 11k at Uni.
A critical care nurse(ICU) gets about $50-60 a week more only, most have to pay parking of around $25 a day. Its also a job where you work a lot of double shifts as their are few agency backups and you can't leave the unit a nurse down. The Government won't fund enough spots at Uni either so most have to pay the 11k. Good luck retaining what's left after Covid burns them all out...

When my kids were at the RCH I was shocked the nurses didn't get discounted parking, only the night shift did.

[Baggers]

A grad certificate in critical care is 11k at Uni.
A critical care nurse(ICU) gets about $50-60 a week more only, most have to pay parking of around $25 a day. Its also a job where you work a lot of double shifts as their are few agency backups and you can't leave the unit a nurse down. The Government won't fund enough spots at Uni either so most have to pay the 11k. Good luck retaining what's left after Covid burns them all out...

EB1, I just hit the roof when I read this. Nurses charged for parking! FFS.

Generally speaking I confess to being angered and flabbergasted at how we so poorly remunerate nurses and allied health care workers. P1sses me off, to be candid. Likewise, educators/teachers. Not to mention police and other emergency workers. In a just world these people would be paid substantially more.

I don't begrudge other professions that are paid highly, though some salaries and bonuses boggle the mind when considering the community contribution, or the lack, thereof. I feel a social justice rant coming on, so I'll stop here.

[ElwoodBlues1]

Some of the nurses do runners and will follow another car out quickly. Some of the parking attendents let them through too if they are regulars but management are watching more closely now.
The other alternatives are park a distance away and walk which a lot do but then take your chances walking to your car in the dark late at night and have a nutter follow you.

[capcom]

A grad certificate in critical care is 11k at Uni.
A critical care nurse(ICU) gets about $50-60 a week more only, most have to pay parking of around $25 a day. Its also a job where you work a lot of double shifts as their are few agency backups and you can't leave the unit a nurse down. The Government won't fund enough spots at Uni either so most have to pay the 11k. Good luck retaining what's left after Covid burns them all out...

Yet Andrews accepted a pay rise.  As did all the other political trash of course.

[Baggers]

Some of the nurses do runners and will follow another car out quickly. Some of the parking attendents let them through too if they are regulars but management are watching more closely now.
The other alternatives are park a distance away and walk which a lot do but then take your chances walking to your car in the dark late at night and have a nutter follow you.

:o  :-X

[DJC]

They were inside the building.

Really?

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victo...58vp6.html

[LP]

When my kids were at the RCH I was shocked the nurses didn't get discounted parking, only the night shift did.

Yep, I was at a CBD hospital recently, I couldn't believe the staff and nurses we forced to park kilometres away to get all day parking at a reasonable rate or free. All the parking around the hospital was 1, 2 or 4 hrs at $4/hr which is useless for staff, and Wilson effectively charge you $18/day provided your are in before a certain time and out after a certain time, if not it gets bumped to $65/day, the crazy entry and exit time forces workers to hang around the area to save $50/day on parking. So most park far away and walk.

[madbluboy]

Really?

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victo...58vp6.html

Yeah really. The office was packed with Setka's bikie mates.

[ElwoodBlues1]

https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/decisio...yd3wQrDdm0

Interesting test case regarding the firing of a admin worker at a nursing home for vaccination refusal....

Final comments

[179] Research in the context of COVID-19 has shown that many who are ‘vaccine-hesitant’ are well educated, work in the health care industry and have questions about how effective the vaccines are in stopping transmission, whether they are safe to take during pregnancy, or if they affect fertility. 37 A far safer and more democratic approach to addressing vaccine hesitancy, and therefore increasing voluntary vaccination uptake, lies in better education, addressing specific and often legitimate concerns that people may hold, and promoting genuine informed consent. It does not lie in censoring differing opinions or removing rights and civil liberties that are fundamental in a democratic nation. It certainly does not lie in the use of highly coercive, undemocratic and unethical mandates.

[180] The statements by politicians that those who are not vaccinated are a threat to public health and should be “locked out of society” and denied the ability to work are not measures to protect public health. They are not about public health and not justified because they do not address the actual risk of COVID. These measures can only be about punishing those who choose not to be vaccinated. If the purpose of the PHOs is genuinely to reduce the spread of COVID, there is no basis for locking out people who do not have COVID, which is easily established by a rapid antigen test. Conversely, a vaccinated person who contracts COVID should be required to isolate until such time as they have recovered.

[181] Blanket rules, such as mandating vaccinations for everyone across a whole profession or industry regardless of the actual risk, fail the tests of proportionality, necessity and reasonableness. It is more than the absolute minimum necessary to combat the crisis and cannot be justified on health grounds. It is a lazy and fundamentally flawed approach to risk management and should be soundly rejected by courts when challenged.

[182] All Australians should vigorously oppose the introduction of a system of medical apartheid and segregation in Australia. It is an abhorrent concept and is morally and ethically wrong, and the anthesis of our democratic way of life and everything we value.

[183] Australians should also vigorously oppose the ongoing censorship of any views that question the current policies regarding COVID. Science is no longer science if it a person is not allowed to question it.

[184] Finally, all Australians, including those who hold or are suspected of holding “anti-vaccination sentiments”, are entitled to the protection of our laws, including the protections afforded by the Fair Work Act. In this regard, one can only hope that the Majority Decision is recognised as an anomaly and not followed by others.

[Mav]

I have to say that if I were in charge of running a campaign to improve conditions for nurses, I’d also focus on things like parking fees rather than a proposed rise in pay. On its face, it appears unjust that nurses have to pay to work.

But this is not an isolated unfairness. The tax system seeks to preclude or dissuade workers from claiming deductions for expenses they must make to work. All those thousands of people who had to travel into the city to their work couldn’t deduct travel expenses and few employers paid for those expenses. While the ATO saved some pennies on those non-deductions, a flood of non-taxed profits left the country by simple accounting tricks like multinational companies being able to deduct consultancy fees paid to subsidiaries in tax havens in Monaco and the Cayman Islands. And while the Federal Govt ruthlessly sought to claw back JobKeeper payments to individuals, they were proud to say companies could keep their payments even if their profits had trebled during Covid shutdowns. All of this is unfair but that won’t change.

Then you have the problem of FBT. What are the implications for hospitals if they provide free parking for staff? If they have to pay top dollar for that parking to the Federal Govt, it would make more sense to increase pay rather than give fringe benefits.

Has the need to pay parking been factored into salaries via negotiations with Unions? You’d think so, but of course that doesn’t prevent this issue being the spearhead of a pressure campaign.

Then you have the fact that the benefits of free parking wouldn’t be felt evenly by all nurses. Some would be able to make their way to work cheaply because they live close to work or public transport is practical for them or they can ride bikes or motorbikes and avoid parking fees. Or because they work at smaller hospitals or medical centres, they already can find free parking.  They would prefer pay increases rather than accept lower salaries in exchange for free parking.

Do hospitals enter into separate workplace agreements with some freedom to address particular parking issues or are agreements industry-wide? Are parking fees part of the hospital revenues or are they paid to private operators?

I would certainly be supportive of improving conditions generally for nurses. The trick is finding that money given the Federal Govt won’t bankroll it and the Victorian Govt has few other ways of raising revenue. Maybe a short-term Covid-bonus might be worthwhile in retaining and recruiting staff while the Covid crush hits the hospital system.