8 January 2002

Trinder Park aged care nurses walk off the job

Nurse shortage so bad, agency nurses fill 120 shifts per month.

Nurses at the Lutheran Church's Trinder Park aged care facility walked off the job for a couple of hours from 2.00pm, Tuesday 8 January 2002 and held a rally outside the facility in protest at the Lutheran Church's refusal to give them wage parity with their public hospital colleagues.

Today's action at the Trinder Park facility is part of a statewide campaign for improved wages and staffing levels by nurses at the Lutheran Church's ten Queensland aged care facilities. Work bans started in the ten facilities early last month.

QNU Secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said the aged care sector is suffering a serious shortage of nurses and unless something is done, and done urgently, to improve wages and staffing levels in Queensland nursing homes then things will get much worse.

"This is a fact that is acknowledged by nursing operators themselves and the issue was also a major one, for both main parties, in the recent federal election campaign. Things are so bad at Trinder Park I am advised that it has to use agency nurses to fill 120 shifts per month."

"So it is surprising that the Lutheran Church is offering a pay rise for its nurses that will maintain, and probably even make worse, the massive pay gap between nursing home and hospital nurses", Ms Hawksworth said.

Examples of the current pay gap between Lutheran aged care nurses and nurses in public hospitals are as follows:

Ms Hawksworth said it is a major injustice that nurses working in aged care facilities such as Trinder Park are so poorly paid when compared with nurses in other sectors.

"And the heavy workloads being imposed on aged care nurses make the injustice worse. Only last year the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission heard evidence of seriously low staffing levels in one Lutheran aged care facility in Queensland", Ms Hawksworth said.

"The Lutheran Church's pay offer of six percent over two years will, at best, simply maintain the massive pay gap and may even make it worse, depending on the pay rises negotiated in the next round of public sector negotiations. "

"Its failure to agree to provide improved staffing ratios also suggests the Lutheran Church is happy to continue imposing heavy workloads on its nurses, even though they are so underpaid."

"Well the fact that the nursing staff are prepared to walk off the job, indicates they are anything but happy with the situation.. And in the interests of quality aged care and good staff relations the Lutheran Church should address their concerns about pay and workloads," Ms Hawksworth said.

As well as wage parity with the public sector and improved staffing levels, QNU members at Lutheran Church aged care facilities are also seeking long service leave and maternity leave arrangements similar to those provided to public sector nurses.