August 22, 2014
Nurses from the South Burnett Private Hospital in Kingaroy today took their campaign for higher wages to the streets, staging a one-hour protest outside the hospital in Markwell Street.
The protest is part of an Enterprise Bargaining process which began back in March.
Spokesperson Sue Luscombe said the stopwork meeting was protected industrial action.
“We are starting our industrial action plan today,” she said.
“Pulse Health (the operators of the private hospital) need to recognise and reward us in compensation for the standard of care we provide and the pride we have in this hospital.
“We would like Pulse Health to raise our pay level so that we are not amongst the lowest paid staff in the State.”
Sue said staff retention rates at the hospital were low.
“We are losing experienced staff to other hospitals and other regions because Pulse Health are treating us as undervalued,” she said.
“We deserve better.”
The nurses were collecting signatures from passers-by on a petition which will be presented to Pulse Health.
The protesters also enjoyed lots of toots of approval – and even a few sirens – from passing entrants in the Variety Bash rally as they passed through Kingaroy.
