QNU Press Releases - April 2004
7 April 2004
Hospital Workers speak out on World Heatlh Day
Date: 7 April 2004
Time: 12.30pm – 1.30pm
Venue
Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital
Ned Hanlon Building
Level 2, physio pool - outside area
Speakers
MC and Introduction – Chris Barrett, Assistant Secretary Queensland Council of Unions
Rosemary Lynch – Registered Nurse at Royal Children’s Hospital
Steven Bedford – Administration Officer at Royal Brisbane Hospital
Robyn Sharp – Physiotherapist at Royal Brisbane Hospital
Staff at the Royal Brisbane Hospital will use today’s World Health Day (7 April) to remind the community of how important a strong public hospital system is if you are injured in a motor vehicle accident. The theme for this year’s World Health Day is “Road Trauma”.
Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) Project Officer, Beth Mohle, said Queensland public hospitals treat thousands of motor vehicle accident victims every year and the lives of many Queenslanders involved in car accidents are saved by the free, high quality emergency care these hospitals provide.
“It is important to remind ourselves that, in an emergency such as a car accident, we are all dependent on the hundreds of public hospitals spread across the State and nation. It doesn’t matter how rich or poor we are or how much private health insurance we have.
“Therefore we all have an interest in public hospitals being properly funded, staffed and maintained. A number of public hospital workers, who often have to treat road accident victims, will make that point at the Royal Brisbane Hospital today,” Ms Mohle said.
Motor vehicle related injuries requiring admission for more than 24 hours including motor vehicle, motor cycle, pedal cyclist and pedestrian injuries. July 2002 – June 2003
Public hospital (admitted patients)
Cairns (267)
Gold Coast (94) (Jan – June 03 only)
Ipswich (132)
Mackay (110)
Mater Children’s (82)
Mount Isa (47)
Nambour (329)
Princess Alexandra (522)
Royal Children’s (43)
Redcliffe (78)
Rockhampton (145)
Royal Brisbane (419)
Toowoomba (137)
Townsville (221)
Total 2626
7 April 2004
Brisbane's Mater Private nurses stop work again today
Pay rates still more than 4% behind other Mater nurses
Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) members at the Mater Private Hospital, South Brisbane, will stop work for two hours at 1.30pm today (7 April) as part of their campaign for equal pay with public hospital nurses and nurses at the Mater Private Mothers’ and Mater Private Children’s hospitals.
They will vote on proposals to continue their current industrial action until hospital management resumes negotiations with QNU officials and offers an improved wage rise. Mater Private nurses currently have work bans in place on various administrative duties, including a number that impact on the hospital’s revenue raising capacity.
Stop work meeting details
Date: 7 April 2004
Time: 1.30pm – 3.30pm
Venue: Mater Private main entrance, Vulture St South Brisbane.
The vast majority of general ward nurses – Registered Nurses Level 1 Year 8 - at the Mater Private adult hospitals at South Brisbane and Redlands are currently earning 4.22 per cent less (nearly $40.00 per week or $2000.00 per year) than their counterparts at public hospitals, including the Mater Public Hospital, and the Mater Private Mothers’ Hospital and Mater Private Children’s Hospital who are doing the same job.
If the current Mater Private offer of two 3.5 per cent pay rises over two years is accepted then this wage difference will blow out to 4.53 per cent or nearly $43.00 per week by January next year.
QNU secretary, Gay Hawksworth, said this offer is an injustice and goes nowhere near addressing the significant wage gap between the vast majority of Mater Private nurses and their colleagues at public hospitals and other Mater 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,” Ms Hawksworth said.
“The private hospital sector, which is heavily subsidised by the Federal Government, has an obligation to treat its nurses fairly. It is nurses who keep private hospitals like this 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 the Mater South Brisbane the two sets of nurses are only separated by a road, yet a nurse who takes a job on the private side of the road currently also takes a significant pay cut. That’s a ridiculous and untenable situation.
“It is time Mater officials returned to the negotiating table and improved their wage rise offer,” Ms Hawksworth said.
This is the second stop work meeting held by nurses at Brisbane’s Mater Private Hospital over this issue. At the first stop work meeting on March 23 the nurses voted to implement the current work bans they have in place.
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