St Vincent’s Nurses to Stop Work

Date: 30 August 2001

10% of nurse positions covered by overtime and agencies

Date: Thursday, 30 August 2001
Time: 12.00noon - 2.00pm
Rally Venue: Outside public hospital

New South Wales Nurses Association (NSWNA) members at St Vincent's Public Hospital in Sydney will stop work for two hours tomorrow afternoon (Thursday 30 August) as part of the NSWNA's What's a Nurse Worth? campaign. During the stop work period nurses will hold a rally outside the public hospital.

NSWNA General Secretary, Sandra Moait, said nearly 90 of St Vincent's 860 full-time-equivalent (FTE) nurse positions are currently being covered by casual or agency nurses or overtime.

"I am advised by NSWNA members at St Vincent's that around 80 FTE positions are currently being covered each week by casual or agency nurses. Another 10 FTEs are being covered each week by overtime shifts. This means a lot of effort is also required to maintained services at this hospital.

"NSWNA members at St Vincent's, like their colleagues elsewhere around the State, are perplexed about why the State Government is just sitting back and doing nothing to improve nurses pay - especially at this time of serious shortages, when we are having trouble enticing nurses to stay in or come back to the profession," Ms Moait said.

Tomorrow's St Vincent's industrial action follows similar action recently at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Concord Hospital, Royal North Shore Hospital, Manly Hospital, Liverpool Hospital, John Hunter Hospital, Tamworth Hospital, Barraba Hospital, Wollongong Hospital and Western Sydney Area Health Service hospitals and community health facilities.

The What's a Nurse Worth? campaign was launched in July at the NSWNA's annual conference, with the objective of solving the NSW nurse shortage through improved wages and conditions for nurses. Despite acknowledging there is a nurse shortage in NSW, the State Government has rejected a NSWNA request for the Industrial Relations Minister, John Della Bosca, to initiate an urgent case before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission aimed at improving nurse wages and conditions.

For further information

Contact:	Sandra Moait
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Phone:	02-9550 3244
Contact Mobile:	0414-810 177
WWW:	http://www.nswnurses.asn.au

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