QNU Press Releases - May 2004
20 May 2004
Brisbane's Mater Private nurses stop work tomorrow for fourth time
Pay rates still more than four percent behind other Mater nurses
Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) members at the Mater Private Hospital, South Brisbane, will stop work for two hours at 8.00am tomorrow (21 May) and again at 1.30pm 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. The action is again expected to disrupt surgery lists.
This will be the fourth strike in two months by Mater Private nurses. The previous strikes were on March 23, April 7 and May 6.
As part of tomorrow’s two two-hour stop works the nurses will rally outside the hospital and 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: 21 May 2004
Time: 8.00am – 10.00am and 1.30pm – 3.30pm
Venue: Stanley Street footpath, South Brisbane, in front of the Coffee Club.
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.
5 May 2004
Brisbane's Mater Private nurses to stop work tomorrow for third time
Pay rates still more than four per cent behind other Mater nurses
Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) members at the Mater Private Hospital, South Brisbane, will stop work for two hours at 8.00am tomorrow (6 May) 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.
This will be the third strike in six weeks by Mater Private nurses. The previous strikes were on March 23 and April 7.
As part of tomorrow’s two-hour strike the nurses will rally outside the hospital and 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.
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.
“It really is about time Mater management got serious about this issue. I can assure them that QNU members are serious and they inform us they are prepared to stick it out until they get wage justice. I have also received reports that nurses are leaving the Mater Private for public sector jobs. I am informed that in one ward alone up to eight nurses resigned in the two or three weeks before Easter,” Ms Hawksworth said.
“The principle of equal pay for equal work is an important part of the Australian industrial relations system. It is only fair that people doing similar work get the same pay.
“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. 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 third 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. | 
