The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) is anxious over the South Australian government's stance on their recent enterprise bargaining action (EBA).

According tp Elizabeth Dabars of the South Australian branch of the ANMF, “The State Government indicated it was not prepared to meet or not able to meet with any solutions, nor provide any serious consideration of our options until Wednesday of this week so at this particular point we are unaware of what options the State Government is seriously considering.”

Nurses want key issues addressed in their EBA with the government. Safe staffing arrangements take the top of list since the federation considers these as directly affecting public health and safety.

Branch secretary Dabars said nurses have begun industrial action such as turning off computers and hand-writing patients' records. “This is not something that nurses and midwives take lightly. They take it very seriously indeed,” she emphasized.

The CEO/secretary added that government “is more interested in counting cost savings than ensuring the safety of public hospital patients” so the federation will also begin “stop-work meetings, public demonstrations, and bans on all non-clinical work.”

Dabars warned of intensifying the level of actions they are taking if the government stalls on resolving the issue.