Date: 13/10/2022

Dear Sally,

I am a paying member of HWU, however I along with most of my fellow Phlebotomists struggle to understand why I pay union fees. 

For example the EA which we are currently working under, had little to no input from the workers. One zoom meeting the evening before taking the EA was taken to Fair Work. This in my eyes does not constitute consultation with the workers. Now we are stuck with an EA that does not work for the majority of workers. 

If we all had unions that understood the work we perform, perhaps unions would have a better name. I understand that making a union takes time. What I struggle to understand is how a union such as HWU can represent so many different facets of the system, and do so well.

For a bit more background. I have called the HWU, which I am a paying member of to ask for assistance in enacting the ADO clause in my current EA. Sadly both phone calls have left me where I started, having to email my supervisor again to reattempt to get the clause enacted myself. To my mind, confirming what I read is not helpful and not what I pay for. 

In the last 18 months the same union has offered to send the same single representative to represent the workers and a supervisor at the same time for the same grievance. I believe that this would have been a conflict of interest, given that the workers had a problem with the supervisor. 

Phlebotomists perform one of the most practised invasive procedures in Healthcare. When will Phlebotomists have unions who give us more than just a second thought? 

I am proudly the Vice President of The Phlebotomists Council of Australia. This Council was started by a fellow Phlebotomist in QLD who saw the huge need for a place for us Professional Healthcare Workers to communicate, to advocate for fairness and this has developed to fighting for safe workplaces and becoming the governing ethical board for Phlebotomy. Our Founder, Bec Luxton, left Pathology to join The Union Movement to assist our Profession.  She has worked for 2 Larger “Multi Industry” Unions in QLD and has been part of two enterprise agreement negotiations.  When you hear the statement that "Enterprise Bargaining is Dead", we concur completely. Currently, Public Sector Employees are remunerated on a higher wage and with better conditions for the same skill set than a Phlebotomist working within a Private Pathology Business. This completely defies any benefit that should be awarded in an Enterprise Agreement. 

We have been advocating for a wage review via a petition that was originally sent to the Women’s Summit in 2021.  Michaelia Cash, in her role as Federal Industrial Relations Minister, responded by saying that the EA Bargaining Process is a fair process.  I believe that response was used as cat litter for Bec’s cats.  We have been waiting for a more positive response from Minister Grace Grace since then.  We recently sent another Petitioned Letter to Minister Grace Grace and will be sending a third one shortly. (These letters are attached for your reference.)

We have acted on workers safety concerns when Unions haven’t acted either in a timely manner or at all. This has been around issues that could be actioned on easily as they are issues included in recent Enterprise Agreements that the Unions negotiated. Unfortunately, our Industry has seen a history of Unions come and campaign around EA Bargaining and then do not follow through on the Duty of Care to enforce the agreement. 0 Then they return 7-10 years later and do the same thing but with more workers that remember that the Union didn’t stick around after the Campaign last time. The Union Membership in our Profession would be close to 5% at best. 

At the PCA we have come to the realisation that the only Union that will successfully advocate for and protect our industry is one that understands our industry. Our Profession has suffered greatly during Covid, due to all the other reasons affecting the Healthcare Sector as a whole, but mainly because of the way the standards have been dropped to accommodate for the staff shortage.  This is dancing with the devil when you are dealing with a high skill set and patient care.  We have already seen a glimpse of some of the errors that can happen with the recent disaster with the QLD Police Forensic Laboratory. Our industry weaknesses are similar to the ones seen in the Royal Commission of the Aged Care Sector.  We want to bring the standards of the Industry back up to better than what they were before Covid, but we don’t want to see a large amount of deaths to put a spotlight on this pressure cooker. 

Sally, we ask of you one thing. Please help us to Unite.  We know that united, we are stronger and the more divided we are, the easier it is to fall. The Phlebotomists Council of Australia are seeking for you to support us to become a National Union.  With Labor finally back in Leadership, we want to be part of making Australia great again. There are no Unions that prioritise Pathology, but there needs to be one.  

We look forward to discussing this further with you Sally.

Kind regards, 

Ceda Young

Vice President

The Phlebotomist Council Of Australia

"Beating the Drums for the Forgotten Healthcare Workers"