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February 28th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Victoria’s nurses will abide by a Federal Court ruling to cease industrial action immediately and return to work.
The news came via Twitter, where the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) advised nurses that all industrial action was cancelled.
“All members must attend work as rostered and perform work in usual manner,” ANF state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said in the tweet.
Earlier in the day, the court backed a Fair Work Australia (FWA) order and told the nurses to lift their rolling four-hour stoppages by 6.30pm (AEDT) on Tuesday.
Nurses at three Melbourne hospitals began the work bans on Friday, the same day the industrial umpire made its order, and the twice-daily stoppages had spread to 15 hospitals across the state.
Justice Richard Tracey on Tuesday said the ANF made a “deliberate and conscious decision” to ignore the tribunal’s order.
He banned the ANF from directing, inducing or assisting nurses to stop work and ordered the union to update its members on the decision via social networking sites.
The Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association (VHIA) argued in court the bans were endangering patients, and had led to cancelled elective surgeries for two cancer patients in Melbourne’s west.
Eugene White, for the ANF, said the cancellations did not compromise patient safety.
He said hospitals could cancel up to 15 per cent of their elective surgeries and still meet the government’s performance benchmarks.
“The cancellation of elective surgeries is something which happens every day in the public health system and does not of itself indicate that any of those patients are receiving treatment outside the government standards,” he told the court.
But Justice Tracey said the VHIA had provided evidence scores of patients in pain had had their surgeries cancelled due to the stoppages.
“The fact other patients at other times may have had surgeries cancelled does not in my view undermine the VHIA argument,” he said.
In a statement, Ms Fitzpatrick said she is seeking urgent clarification from VHIA chief executive Alec Djoneff about comments he made indicating a willingness to accept Federal Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten’s proposal for a private arbitration.
“Mr Djoneff told everyone a proposal would be forthcoming by today – it hasn’t been,” Ms Fitzpatrick said.
“He told others he would be proposing to engage the independent umpire, a member of Fair Work Australia, he hasn’t.”
She said it was vital that Mr Djoneff make clear his intentions to nurses and midwives.
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