safety of workers and patients also need strong unions
"A unionised workforce does lead to higher patient safety, as well as better public health and of course better conditions for workers. There is ample evidence internationally that the higher levels of union-density lead to better outcomes for both workers and patients. For example, a recent study in the USA found that COVID-19 related mortality was 30% lower in unionised age-care hospice than non-unionised age-care hospice" said Kate Lappin, Regional Secretary for the Asia Pacific region, Public Services International (PSI).
Concerns of healthcare workers like nurses, can only be addressed effectively (for the safety of workers as well as patients) if they have a strong voice. --and that can only happen through a collective process of having a union that not only has enough power to be able to raise specific issues but also to bargain for long term changes both at the workplace level as well as in public policy" added Kate.
When healthcare workers are unionised, they have a clear method to raise concerns about either patient or worker safety that would otherwise be ignored. Other methods like helplines are an eyewash and not effective in addressing these concerns of patients and healthcare workers because there is no guaranteed follow-up. Moreover, healthcare workers like nurses need to be involved in the responses to each situation.
In a non-unionised space, if nurses bring concerns to the attention of the management, they risk losing their jobs. "But in a unionised space, these can be addressed. For example, when there are inadequate PPE or noncompliance to the policies set by the government, these issues can be raised and addressed effectively only through a unionised workforce. In a number of countries around the world we can see that the more unionised nurses have been, higher level of respect they receive, better conditions they have (also in terms of pay and working conditions), as well as a higher nurse to patient ratio. This has been a challenge for nurses' unions and some of them have not only been able to influence the policies but also helped mandated a law. After many years of campaigning nurses in Melbourne gained a law for 3 to 1 patient to nurse ratio in general wards and one to one nurse to patient ratio in ICU. That of course would not have happened without a clear and powerful union - nurses' union in Melbourne is the largest nurses' union in Australia and power they have to protect public health more broadly as well as workers' health has been very clear" shared Kate Lappin.
Bobby Ramakant - CNS (Citizen News Service)
(Bobby Ramakant is part of CNS and Asha Parivar, and a WHO Director General's WNTD Awardee 2008. Follow him on Twitter @bobbyramakant or read www.bit.ly/BobbyRamakant)
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