Nurse pay and conditions are now an election issue

Published: 22 February 2012

• Agreement not reached prior to election being called

• Nurses seek one month post-election deadline for EB8 finalisation

Nurse pay and conditions, and workplace relations policy, are set to become a State election issue after negotiations, between the State Government and Queensland Nurses Union (QNU), for a new nurses and midwives agreement failed to finalise an acceptable draft agreement prior to the calling of the election on Sunday.

The current nurses and midwives agreement – EB7 – is due to expire a week after the election, on 31 March, but strong efforts were made to finalise a draft agreement prior to the State election, so that ongoing negotiations were not compromised by the uncertainties of an election.

After months of intensive discussions the negotiating teams reached agreement on a range of issues, including:

• a three per cent or $30 per week, whichever is greater, annual pay rise;
• a three per cent annual rise for most allowances;
• better workloads management and the requirement to display the required nurse-to-patient ratios in each ward or unit;
• increased rural and remote incentives;
• greater support for Nurse/Midwifery Unit Managers;
• advancement of the Enrolled Nurse Advanced Practice classification; and
• improved overtime arrangements for senior nurses and midwives who have to work during natural disasters.

However, there are still a couple of outstanding items that could not be satisfactorily finalised before the government went into caretaker mode. These include enhancements to the career and classification structure for nurses and midwives at Grades 5, 6 and 7.

Queensland Health is also resisting a three per cent annual rise for the Professional Development Allowance. Failure to increase this important allowance, in line with pay and other allowance rises, will see it lose its value over time and we must try to avoid that happening.

The QNU is now preparing to campaign over the issue during the State election to ensure the progress made to date is honoured by the next government and that all parties commit to finalising a draft agreement, for nurses and midwives to consider and vote on, within one month of the State election.

QNU secretary, Beth Mohle, said every effort was made to secure pay and working conditions certainty for Queensland Health nurses and midwives ahead of the State election, but some issues are too important to the future of Queensland nursing and midwifery and they need more time to be finalised.

“The QNU will not be hurried into a substandard outcome just because an election is due. We must have a new agreement – EB8 - that protects and builds on the important gains made for nurses and midwives in recent years. And we want an acceptable proposal, which nurses and midwives can consider and vote on, finalised within a month of the election. The QNU is now seeking a commitment from all parties that they will work for such an outcome if they are elected to government,” Ms Mohle said.

“Any government that doesn’t work for such an outcome can expect a vigorous campaign from QNU members across the State, whatever the outcome of the election.

“Irrespective of who wins, national health reforms are forcing significant changes to the way health services are delivered in Queensland. To ensure these reforms work, nurses and midwives, who are the largest occupational group, must be valued and supported through a positive workplace agreement and improved workplace culture – including greater budget delegation and authority for nurses and midwives in unit and facility management positions.

“Queensland Health is also opening major new health facilities, particularly in the south-east corner, in the next few years. These will require extra nurses and midwives, in the context of an ongoing shortage in some areas. So the pressure is building and Queensland Health will need to be a high-quality employer if it is to attract enough nurses and midwives to safely staff its existing and new services.

“Queensland Health’s own Statewide clinical-workforce projections forecast a substantial increase in demand for nurses and midwives in the years ahead. This new workplace agreement for nurses and midwives is vital to creating the conditions that allow us to meet that demand. So we must get it right and all political parties must commit to getting it right.

Campbell Newman, the LNP and nurse wages

“In this context, QNU members are particularly interested in hearing Campbell Newman’s take on all this. Everyone knows the Liberal Party and National Party traditions on workplace relations. They are the parties of WorkChoices. They are the parties in NSW that have now, without announcing it prior to the last NSW election, deprived nurses and midwives of the right to have wages and conditions disputes with the State Government arbitrated by the independent umpire – the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

“They are the parties in Victoria, which are currently attacking the campaign by that State’s nurses and midwives to protect safer nurse-to-patient ratios. Given our renewed emphasis on workloads management here in Queensland, nurses and midwives are increasingly concerned about the government attacks on their Victoria colleagues.

“They are also the parties that, when last in government in Queensland under Rob Borbidge and Joan Sheldon, gave us the unpopular Queensland Workplace Agreements (QWAs) – the precursors to John Howard’s pay-cutting Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs).

“Queensland nurses and midwives will be watching the workplace policies of the major parties carefully during this State election campaign. Of the major parties, we expect a re-elected Labor government to finalise this next agreement quickly. We expect the LNP to honour what has already been achieved in negotiations over the last five months and also finalise the next agreement quickly.

“We do not want Mr Newman to follow his NSW colleague and, if elected, undermine the powers of Queensland’s independent workplace umpire. Nor should he follow his Victoria Liberal colleague and try to undermine safe nursing and midwifery workloads. We need strong commitments on these issues from him prior to March 24.

“So far we have only received one word answers to the questions we have put to the LNP on this issue. Nurses and midwives need more detail than that, because they are increasingly concerned they could lose their right to bargain collectively and to access the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission if agreement can’t be reached on future pay rises and working conditions.

“That is what John Howard’s WorkChoices did to many private sector and aged care nurses and midwives and what the NSW Liberals and Nationals have now done to public hospital nurses and midwives in that State. What are the LNP’s plans for Queensland workplace relations? What is the LNP’s vision for the future of our public health system? What is the LNP’s vision for the future of Queensland nursing and midwifery,” Ms Mohle said.