Psychiatric nurses and allied health and ancillary staff in public mental health services across Victoria have been taking industrial action in order to secure a fair EBA.

The Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) is pursuing 50 claims, including an annual 4 percent pay rise, increased staff and greater protections around workload, staffing and seniority. None of the claims were agreed to in negotiations in the months prior to industrial action starting.

Protected action began at 12 services across Victoria in late May. A further four services recently joined the campaign after the first round of protected action ballots failed by a slim margin. The initial failure was in part due to the legal requirement to vote via post to take industrial action, rather than in a mass meeting, which undermined the collective spirit.

This, alongside increased delays with Australia Post and reliance on both the union and employer to provide correct addresses for members to the electoral commission, also reduced the number of people who voted. At one health service, names of members were not even provided because the bosses claimed that the workers there were covered by another union.

Protected action so far has included bans on a range of non-clinical duties such as paperwork. Two-hour stop-works have taken place at hospitals around the state.

The union’s focus for the campaign has been “staffing, services and safety”. Suicide is the leading cause of death for young people in Australia. But while service demand climbs, the public system continues to be whittled away.

As HACSU members have walked out, many have called for better services and for hospital bosses to do more to address workplace violence. The risk of assault while working in mental health services is unacceptably high. Services need higher staffing levels for the safety of workers and patients alike.

The union has reported that some claims have now been agreed to by the state government. However, so far none of the monetary claims have been settled.