Frontline workers are angry and have no choice but to strike as their employer RDNS shut down employment negotiations this week leaving workers facing pay freezes and a loss of work conditions.
Multiple RDNS worksites across Adelaide will hold protected one-hour stop work action in protest of the unfair and weak employment agreement that RDNS is attempting to push through for approval.
Negotiations were abruptly ended by RDNS this week when they announced they were putting an employment agreement out to workers to vote for, despite the agreement not being endorsed by any negotiating parties.
Frontline aged care workers, allied health professionals, administration and support staff will strike for one hour today and have chosen this short disruption to minimise impact on RDNS clients.
The workers have been striving for a fair wage increase and to maintain their employment conditions since the government privatised Domiciliary Care services to RDNS/Silver Chain Group in 2018.
Quotes attributable to Health Services Union SA/NT Branch Secretary, Billy Elrick
“A strike is always a last resort for HSU members but RDNS have now shown how little they value their workforce.”
“RDNS pretended to listen to the workers reasonable demands, ignored them, shut down negotiations and are rushing through a weak employment agreement at the first opportunity.”
“It is an attempt to silence these voices of these important workers, and they are rightly fed up.”
“These workers do a brilliant job caring for some of the most vulnerable in our community, they deserve a fair pay rise that values their work and keeps them from drowning under the cost of living.”
“We call on RDNS to retract their weak agreement and come back to the table to listen to and act on the reasonable asks from their workforce.”
