Michael Ferguson,Minister for Health
The Department of Health has advised that if the bans announced by HACSU bosses proceed, critical services will cease and there will be serious impacts on patients and attendant public health risks.
This action is deliberately targeted at compromising patient safety and HACSU bosses need to take responsibility for the outcomes.
The actions by HACSU bosses will have a direct impact on infection control and cleanliness in hospitals, endangering patients, visitors, staff and other health professionals. I call on HACSU to immediately call off these dangerous actions.
The Secretary of the Department of Health will write to employees this afternoon to inform them of the potentially serious impacts of these actions and remind them of their duties.
Where duties aren’t performed, industrial measures including pay reductions and stand-downs will be pursued.
The Government is negotiating in good faith and has put forward fair and reasonable offers and proposals for unions to take to their members. Instead of doing so and coming back to Government with a counter-offer, HACSU bosses are now refusing to negotiate and are unfairly targeting patients with unreasonable industrial action.
