Hospital lockout a privatisation battleground
It’s a cold and windy Thursday afternoon in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. It’s also May Day and today, dozens of workers – members of the Victorian Health Professional Association (VHPA) – have gathered outside the Northern Hospital’s main entrance to protest a lockout by their boss.
Workers in the radiology department of the hospital expected that their enterprise agreement negotiations would be a standard affair. Instead, they have found themselves at the centre of a battle against privatisation and union-busting. Some workers have been locked out for weeks.
The Northern Hospital is the only major public hospital in Victoria with a completely privatised radiology department. The department is run by Healthcare Imaging Service Ltd (HIS), which recently took over management from another company.
The bosses at HIS appear determined to show state governments across the country just how lean and mean the health care business can be – cutting wages, trashing conditions and breaking the union. “We’ve been in negotiations for over 12 months now”, explained one of the locked-out radiology workers. “They’ve been dragging this out for so long: stalling, cancelling meetings and now this.”
The company is offering a miserable 2 percent pay rise over the course of the next agreement, but only if workers give away conditions including some weekend penalty rates and sick leave entitlements. It’s the most serious attack they’ve ever faced. The union is calling the company’s final offer a “real pay cut of 10 percent”.
The bosses of HIS, on the other hand, are enjoying stupendous wealth. “The CEO is Ed Bateman”, says another worker, “mates with Tony Abbott”. Dr Ed Bateman regularly appears on the BRW rich list, and last year his net worth was estimated to be over $400 million. His company, the parent company of HIS, is one of the largest and most profitable health care corporations in Australia. Its profits surged by 29 percent in 2013, to $150 million.
The attack on these workers is central to the company’s business model. It’s about proving that HIS has what it takes to drive down costs in the sector in the hope that this will win it contracts in other public hospitals. When asked if a victory for HIS would set a precedent, one of the locked-out workers responded: “Oh yeah, right across the industry … this will impact all across the industry in NSW and Queensland.”
HIS bosses are also aware of the significance of the dispute and are doing everything they can to stifle the workers’ ability to bargain. Those gathered at the Northern Hospital were clear that industrial laws were stacked in the bosses’ favour, pointing out that HIS is legally allowed to lock out its workforce for engaging in protected industrial action to protect their wages.
HIS workers at the Northern Hospital and other sites across the state will need all the support they can get in the coming weeks. Visit the VHPA Facebook page for info on upcoming events and pickets: facebook.com/vic.hpa.
