Qld Nurses Vote On Stop-Work

Date: 04 December 2003

Queensland Nurses Union members at central Queensland's four Mater Private Hospitals - Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton and Yeppoon - will vote this week on whether to stop work next Tuesday (9 December) as part of their campaign for equal pay with public hospital nurses.

Nurses at the four Mater hospitals already have a uniform ban in place as part of their wages campaign and a teleconference of workplace delegates has recommended industrial action be escalated next week. The uniform ban involves the nurses swapping their uniforms for plain clothes and QNU campaign t-shirts.

The vast majority of general ward nurses - Registered Nurses Level 1 Year 8 - at the four Mater hospitals are currently earning up to 7.75 per cent less (nearly $70.00 per week or $3500.00 per year) than their counterparts at nearby public hospitals who are doing the same job. A full wage comparison sheet comparing public hospitals with the central Queensland Mater hospitals is attached.

QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said the QNU has been negotiating with Mater Central Queensland management for nearly twelve months and the best they can offer now is a four per cent rise by July next year.

"This offer is an injustice and goes nowhere near addressing the significant wage gap between the vast majority of Mater nurses and their colleagues at local public hospitals. The principle of equal pay for equal work is an important part of the Australian industrial relations system and it is only fair that people doing similar work get the same pay.

"The private hospital sector, which is being heavily subsidised by the Federal Government, has an obligation to treat its nurses fairly. It is nurses who keep private hospitals like these running 24 hours a day, seven days a week and they should not be treated as second-class citizens in terms of pay. After all they have the same qualifications and do the same work as public sector nurses. At Gladstone Mater the two sets of nurses are only separated by a walkway, yet a nurse who takes a job at the private end of the walkway currently also takes a significant pay cut. That's a ridiculous and untenable situation.

Workloads heavy and sometimes dangerous

"In terms of capacity to pay, every employer cries poor when presented with a wage claim. However, we believe the Mater Central Queensland Group has no option but to pay its nurses the same as public hospital nurses. It is already having trouble recruiting nurses and I am advised that the workloads imposed on the remaining nurses are heavy.

"For example, Gladstone Mater nurses report that their workloads are out of control and they often don't get meal breaks. As a result their stress levels are high and this is leading to increased sick leave. I understand the staffing situation at Yeppoon is also a problem and that again the nurses often don't get meal breaks.

"Mater Rockhampton members tell me they are also often understaffed and sometimes dangerously so. I understand the nurses in the MB2 medical ward frequently go without meal breaks and that there was a crisis meeting of management last Thursday (27 November) to discuss excessive workloads in the Intensive Care Unit. Managers regularly tell the nurses the hospital can't get enough extra staff.

"Morale amongst Mater Rockhampton nurses has plummeted in the last eighteen months and many are questioning management's commitment to the hospital's mission statement, which talks about justice and human dignity.

"Members report that Mater Bundaberg is also usually understaffed and sometimes dangerously so. The nurses estimate that at the start of each shift they are up to two hours understaffed on each shift in each ward.

"I have been advised that recently on one afternoon shift there were two nurses - one Registered Nurse (RN) and one non-medication-endorsed Enrolled Nurse (EN) - for 18 patients in a general medical ward. On another recent evening shift there was one RN and one non-medication-endorsed EN for 11 patients, including seven theatre patients who require half-hourly observations. For safe practice there should be no more than three or four theatre patients per RN.

"Clearly, these central Queensland Mater hospitals have staffing problems and they will not be fixed while management continues to offer sub-standard wage rates when compared with local public hospitals," Ms Hawksworth said.

Mater Central Queensland Group management has offered its nurses a four per cent pay rise by July next year in the following increments:

- 2.0 per cent from 1 December 2003; and
- 2.0 per cent from 1 July 2004.

For further information

Contact:	John Moran
Union:	QNU
Phone:	(07) 3366 9010
Contact Mobile:	0410 603 278

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