Jubilant to hostile: How a done deal blew up in the nursing union’s face

“I was trying to say that we didn’t explain it well enough,” she later said. “I take full responsibility for that. Our members are intelligent men and women, they are well-educated and have extraordinary skills and work in very complex environments.”

At a statewide meeting at Festival Hall on Monday, the mood shifted from jubilant to hostile as about 3000 public-sector nurses and midwives digested the deal.

It included cash payments for staff and new allowances and was detailed in a 48-page slideshow projected onto a large screen.

In a dramatic show of hands – which left Fitzpatrick looking visibly shaken – members turned down the deal she had expected they would approve.

The union will meet Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas and Treasurer Tim Pallas on Monday to try to thrash out a new deal.

“We will do everything we can to regain the faith of those who say they have lost it,” Fitzpatrick said.

“We will deliver at our next meeting an outcome that provides clarity.”

Bed closures and walkouts were still triggers that could be pulled if necessary, she said.

That has done little to placate union members, many of whom remain furious at the union and its leader.

Michael, a nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said nurses and midwives had been expected to vote for a pay deal when they were given no clarity about what their wage increase would be over the next four years.

He said it was disappointing that his union’s leaders had not read the room.

“We feel like we haven’t been listened to. We feel like the leadership has let us down,” said Michael, who asked that his surname not be used due to fears he could be targeted by the union.

Some in the crowd at Festival Hall had been handing out CFMEU site allowance sheets and asking why construction workers holding up traffic signs were paid more than a nurse with six years of university training.

“At no point could they tell us clearly what is the percentage yearly wage increase for the average nurse,” Michael said.

He said it could be months before the Fair Work Commission case was determined and that union members resented in effect being called stupid.

“I’ve worked in ICU, I have a master’s, and I can calculate the metered oxygen requirements for someone getting into an induced coma to keep them alive,” Michael said.

“We lived and worked through COVID, while she pulls in $310,000 a year.”

RMIT industrial law expert Professor Anthony Forsyth said it was unusual, but not unprecedented, for union members to vote down a deal that had been supported by union leadership.

He said while the state government was sticking with its wage cap of 3 per cent per annum across the public sector, workers felt they might be able to do better.

“They’ve looked at it and said, �?There’s a good chance we’re going to get increases awarded by the [Fair Work Commission], but we want the certainty of that written into our agreement’,” he said.

“I think that’s where they’ve decided to vote it down.”

One midwife – who asked to remain anonymous because she feared speaking out could jeopardise her employment – said she had lost faith in the union leadership and was considering a career change.

She said has delivered more than 60 babies in her three years at the Royal Women’s Hospital – but can’t afford to have one of her own.

“I would love one, but I can’t,” she said.

She said she worked four days a week and took home about $1700 a fortnight after tax on her base rate and picked up extra night shifts on higher rates so she can afford her rent.

A mortgage, she said, was out of the question. “I live paycheck to paycheck some fortnights.”

Roxi, a union delegate and experienced midwife at the Royal Women’s Hospital, said she had never attended a union meeting where members were so rude and disrespectful.

“Everyone was booing and yelling,” she said.

While Roxi – who doesn’t want her surname published because she is worried about blowback at work – understands why her colleagues voted no.

But she voted in favour of the deal because she thought it delivered a decent pay rise.

“A 4 per cent pay rise and $6100 bonus over the next two months is a great start,” she said.

“I know that a further 5 to 13 per cent pay rise is in the pipeline within the next year. I have faith in the union and its leadership.”

Roxi said her colleagues were hurting financially due to the cost-of-living crisis, and it didn’t take much to get them fired up.

A state government spokeswoman said she hoped a resolution would be reached as soon as possible.

“We will always back our nurses and midwives and the extraordinary work they do to provide Victorians with world-class care,” she said.

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