15% Payrise For Healthscope Nurses

Date: 03 April 2003

Healthscope, which operates four private hospitals in NSW, has agreed to a NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) claim for a 15 per cent pay rise for private hospital nurses this year so their wages keep pace with public-sector nurses wage rates, the NSWNA said today.

This pay offer from Healthscope follows last December's interim decision by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (NSW IRC) to grant public sector nurses a six per cent pay rise from January 2003. This interim rise, when combined with the four per cent January pay rise and five per cent July pay rise negotiated between the NSWNA and State Government, means public sector nurses in NSWNA are receiving a 15 per cent (compounding) pay rise this year.

NSWNA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, said Healthscope was the first private hospital employer in NSW to offer wages parity with the public sector after the NSW IRC's interim decision and it is to be congratulated for its business sense.

Mayne Health has now also agreed to give its NSW nurses a 15 per cent pay rise this year.

Healthscope, which operates the Dubbo Private Hospital, Sydney Clinic at Waverley, Mosman Private Hospital and Sydney South West Private Hospital at Liverpool and employs more than 150 nurses, has agreed to the following pay increases for its nursing staff:

· four per cent from March 2003;
· six per cent from May 2003; and
· five per cent from August 2003.

This will provide a standard ward nurse - a Registered Nurse with at least eight years experience - with a pay rise of around $140.00 per week. Healthscope has also agreed to phase in parity with the public sector across a range of other entitlements such as on-call and in-charge-of-shift allowances. NSWNA members at Healthscope facilities are now considering and voting on the offer.

"Private hospitals in NSW are not exempt from the nurse shortage and, like the public sector, they also have an obligation to help restore nursing as an attractive career option through improved wages and conditions. Healthscope clearly understands this point," Mr Holmes said.

"Healthscope's decision to match public sector pay rises also makes business sense, because it should now find it easier to recruit and retain nurses. If private hospitals let nurses' wages and conditions fall behind the public sector they risk losing large numbers of nurses to the public sector, which is actively recruiting to fill the thousands of nursing vacancies in NSW public hospitals.

"To its credit Healthscope, unlike most other private hospital operators, always seemed to understand this point and the NSWNA did not have much trouble getting a decent wages offer from them," Mr Holmes said.

Mr Holmes said the NSWNA is still negotiating with other private hospital operators around the State for wages parity with the public sector and is hopeful of positive outcomes with many of them in the near future.

"We are also stepping up our campaign in the aged care sector - the A Fair Share for Aged Care campaign - for wages parity with the public hospital sector. We cannot afford to have two classes of nurses when it comes to wages. Nursing work is nursing work and nurses are entitled to receive equal pay across all the health care and aged care sectors.

"It is not only a question of wage justice. Getting the private hospital and aged care sectors to match the improved pay and conditions in the public sector is the only way we can genuinely overcome the serious nurse shortage we currently face," Mr Holmes said.

For further information

Contact:	John Moran
Union:	Labor Council of NSW
Contact Mobile:	0410 603 278

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