Vic: Nurse may be sacked for criticising home, says union

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2000
Vic: Nurse may be sacked for criticising home, says union

By Heather Gallagher, Industrial Correspondent

MELBOURNE, April 18 AAP - A nurse could be sacked after speaking out about allegedly
appalling conditions in a Melbourne nursing home run by the Baptist church, a union said
today.

The nurse, who refused to be named, works part-time for the Church Nursing Home at
Brunswick which is run by Baptist Community Care.

The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) fears she will be sacked at a meeting on Thursday
because she told senior staff she agreed with allegations about the home published in
The Age newspaper.

The article said the home had holes in its walls which allowed mice and rats into residential
areas and that residents had been left wet in their beds for hours because of staff shortages.

The home denied the allegations.

A day after the meeting with senior staff, the nurse received a letter from management
saying due to the "difficult workplace relationships at Church Nursing Home you are formally
stood down with full pay".

ANF industrial officer Brendan Soraghan said the union then wrote to Baptist Community
Care saying it was illegal to sack someone under the award.

The latest letter the ANF has received from management allegedly threatens to terminate
the nurses' employment on Thursday.

Mr Soraghan said the incident revealed the inadequacies of the system.

"There is not a mechanism for someone who cares for patients ... to make a complaint
without fear of retribution," he told AAP.

ANF secretary Belinda Morieson (Morieson) said it was disgusting management had chosen
to take action against the nurse rather than address her concerns.

"All this will do is create a climate of fear whereby no other nurse will be brave
enough to speak out and residents will have no one to advocate on their behalf," she said.

Clare Dewan of the Service Industry Advisory Group, speaking on behalf of Baptist Community
Care, said other staff had made complaints about the nurse.

She said Thursday's meeting was unrelated to the newspaper report and would discuss
the complaints which had been made against the nurse.

"The organisation has absolutely no knowledge of who may have made reports to the press
about the nursing home," she said.

"Whatever happens on Thursday it is as a result of the complaints against this person
by other staff."

Ms Dewan refused to reveal the nature of the complaints.

The incident follows the forced redundancies of nurses at the Riverside Nursing Home
which closed after residents were bathed in a kerosene solution.

AAP hmg/jd/it/bwl e

KEYWORD: NURSE

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