
Issue No 113		28 September 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

News

NSW Nurses (Pro)Claim Their Worth

By Laura MacFarlane

Nurses are gearing up for a statewide stoppage in support of their campaign to restore numbers to the profession.

Despite a recent NSW Department of Health survey proving that nurses would return to the profession if wages were increased and conditions were improved the NSW Government refuses to listen to their pleas for a wage rise. The survey also shows that nurses need more support at work.

The "What's a Nurse Worth?" campaign is being run by NSW Nurses' Association in response to the crisis that exists in our health system due to the extreme difficulties in keeping nurses working in that system. A pay increase is seen as a first step to addressing the shortage and rebuilding the public health system.

More than 70 campaign committees now exist at public hospitals and community health centres in the State and work bans have been implemented at most facilities.

Nurses very rarely use their industrial clout, but after a series of stop work meetings and public rallies at many city and rural hospitals they are going on astae wide striken the 18th of October they are going to. Nurses are walking out for 8 hours for more pay but also so more nurses don't walk out for good.

Nurses will rally in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong. A Sky Channel broadcast from the Sydney Town Hall will link nurses in rural areas and Sydney nurses will march to Parliament House afterwards

According to NSWNA Assistant General Secretary Brett Holmes, nurses have been leaving the profession and are not returning. "This has been building for a couple of years at least in NSW. - nurses feel undervalued. There are a large number of qualified nurses in the community who won't return to the system unless conditions and work loads improve."

The nursing shortage is an international phenomenon. In NSW there are 1800 known job vacancies. As more nurses, including new graduates, leave the profession for other jobs with more pay and less responsibility, it is, Holmes asserts "becoming harder for those that are left to maintain a safe environment for both patients and staff". The nursing shortage has already led to bed closures and service cuts around the State.

Holmes believes achieving a positive wage outcome is going to have an immediate impact on people's decisions to return to nursing and says "improving conditions will have to follow or people won't stay"

" Our members are telling us loud and clear that wages are a critical factor and an indicator of value. Recruitment and retention activities are occurring but having no real impact on vacancies being advertised. Younger nurses see their friends from university experiencing a different lifestyle. Being paid better salaries for doing less vital, less stressful work". Holmes said.

The training and tertiary qualifications of NSW nurses is equivalent to most other health professionals. Yet, in the NSW public health service, the rate of pay for a registered nurse is up to $100.00 per week less than physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians and social workers. The Government claims nurses in NSW are already the highest paid in Australia. However, in other states nurses are paid at the same level as the other health professionals in that state.

   Visit the NSW Nurses's campaign page

  View entire issue - print all of the articles!

  Issue 113 contents

Interview: The Custodian
Labor's arts spokesman Bob McMullan on the role government can play in nurturing national culture.

Media: Chucking a Wobbly
Veronica Apap meets Dan Buhagiar, the programmer of Labor Council's new online initiative, Wobbly Radio.

E-Change: 3.3 Unleashing a Networked Culture
Politics does not occur in a vacuum - it's is as much a product of its culture as it is an influence on it. In the post-Industrial Age how will this relationship change?

Unions: Are You a Terrorist?
Away from the talkback noise, Mark Hearn reports on how a Sydney workforce is taking up the cause of racial understanding and tolerance.

Organising: STAA Performers
Film industry workers are acting collectively to ensure they don't become Mexicans with Mobiles.

Workplace: Making Art Work
The Workers Cultural Action Committee is a community cultural development provider. What is this? And what does it mean for the union movement?

History: Creative Alliances
Neale Towart wanders through the archives to look at how unions' have worked with artists to promote progressive casuses.

Performance: Tales from the Shop Floor
Peter Murphy profiles Sydney's New Theatre and the role it has played in fostering working culture.

Review: Homegroan
In an extract from her new book, The Money Shot, Jane Mills argues that the local film industry needs more than patriotism to get bums on seats.

Satire: PM Pleads To Nauru: Take Our Aborigines Too
In the wake of Nauru�s acceptance of the Tampa refugees, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has struck a new deal with the small island nation to take our Aborigines as well.

» Abbott Stacks Commission on Election Eve

» Trades Hall to Be Fit for the Arts

» Olympic Builders Honoured in Oil

» Terror Shockwaves Hit Security Workers

» The Ansett Phoenix Rises

» 'The General' Makes Ansett Stand

» One Dollar Workforce Highlights Workcover Concerns

» Email Workers Saved

» Union Power Gets Tilers Paid In Full

» NSW Nurses (Pro)Claim Their Worth

» AOL Sheds Non-Union Staff

» Building Inquiry Faces First Test of Integrity

» Telstra Guilty Over Union Discrimination

» Paint Workers Finish the Job

» New Project Agreement A Template

» The Workers United, Need a New Slogan!

» Activists Notebook