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 makes 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 for the third time in less than three months, indicates the extent of their frustration 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.

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8 March 2002

Nurses launch major campaign to fix Queensland's nursing crisis

Public hospital nurse vacancies blow out to 800

Nearly 30 000 nurses in public hospitals, private hospitals, aged care facilities and other healthcare settings throughout the State have started receiving badges, posters and brochures as part of Stage One of a year-long campaign to fix the nursing crisis currently engulfing Queensland's health and aged care systems.

The Queensland Nurses' Union (QNU) today launched its Nurses: Worth Looking After campaign and started distributing informational material - badges, posters and brochures to its 137 branches, 281 workplace representative and 848 workplace contacts.

The campaign will run throughout 2002 and involve extensive community education, political lobbying and possibly, industrial action. Its objective is to rebuild Queensland's nursing workforce through:

• improving nurse wages;
• ensuring workloads are safe for both patients and staff;
• ensuring nurse education programs are appropriate and affordable;
• an improved and safer workplace environment; and
• the implementation of workforce planning strategies that address the needs of a predominantly female and shift working workforce.

With the current Queensland Health enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) due to expire on 31 May this year, a log of claims has also been served on Queensland Health, which seeks a range of improvements in wages and working conditions including:

• a six percent per year pay rise, with the first six per cent starting on 1 June 2002
• a six percent wage equity adjustment between 1 June 2002 and 1 June 2003, which brings nurse wages into line with other equivalent health professionals
• special qualification allowances of between four percent and 7.5 percent as an incentive for nurses to undertake specialised training and education
• the better management of workloads
• reasonable working hours and overtime restricted to a maximum of two hours per day
• uninterrupted meal breaks of 30 minutes
• free, safe car parking at all hospitals and health facilities
• five days paid study, conference and seminar leave per year
• night shift workers to receive a 20 per cent allowance
• fourteen weeks paid maternity leave
• locality allowance on the same basis as the State public service
• breaks of not less than 10 hours between shifts and
• the extension of the Remote Area Nurses Incentive Package to enrolled nurses and assistants in nursing.

QNU Secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said this log of claims represents a serious attack on the problems driving people away from nursing.

"The nursing crisis has now reached a point in Queensland that services are being cut and, even in hospitals, registered nurses are being replaced by unlicensed staff. For example, in Queensland public hospitals official nurse vacancies blew out from 500 in 1999 to over 800 in November 2001," Ms Hawksworth said.

"And these are Queensland Health's own figures. QNU members tell us that the situation is actually much worse. The official figure for Royal Brisbane Hospital was only 15, but our members say it was actually more than 100. Staff shortages like this are regularly causing the cancellation of elective surgery and other services around the state."

"The situation is the same in the State's private hospitals and the aged care sector is almost a basket case. In fact, the depth and breadth of the nurse shortage is profound. Shortages in no other occupational group come close to rivalling it. It is time for employers and governments at all levels to address the issues causing the crisis. They can't hide behind claims of an international nurse shortage, they have an obligation to act in their own jurisdictions."

"And, in short, that means acting on comparatively poor pay and working conditions, excessive and unsafe workloads and an entrenched culture within the health sector that undervalues nurses and nursing work. The simple reality is that we must get substantial improvements in wages and working conditions if we are to rebuild nursing as an attractive career and keep the quantity and quality of Queensland's health services up to legitimate community expectations."

"We have this year to start fixing things or we will face a very dire situation in the years ahead." Ms Hawksworth said.

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