Over the weekend HACSU were provided with a change proposal for a “support shift” in Launceston that appears to be drawn from the hours currently dedicated to a night shift – so to get this arvo shift, you lose a night shift crew in Launceston. 6 crews are currently the normal minimum.

This proposal, assuming normal staffing, will have 6 crews from 0700 -1130, 7 crews 1130-1800, 6 crews 1800-2330 and 5 crews 2330-0700. We obviously have concerns about this, it appears the people on this roster will maintain their roster away from night shifts for the 3-month trial. We will suggest a 16-week trial for roster balance.

The proposed roster is a 4x4 11-hour day and 12-hour arvo shifts which is more than composite, less than HF. We don’t agree with this pattern and will suggest it should be based on BSO hour rotation of 4 X 11-hour 25min shifts, which is the composite roster, that also provides 2 meal breaks per shift. The exec view is that 11-hour day shifts, plus extensions, are too long with only one break.

Ultimately, we believe an integrated afternoon shift roster with a DDAN rotation is a more preferred method of work, but this is likely to need more resources. We’ll express concerns about workload issues for those remaining on the DDNN model during this trial.

Click here to see the proposal, and we seek your urgent feedback, so please email your thoughts to Chris Kennedy via assist@hacsu.org.au