Member for Nanango Deb Frecklington says the 2500 nurses and midwives in the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service will get a payrise next year – their fourth since the election of the LNP State Government.
Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said the nurses and midwives would receive a 2.2 per cent wage increase from April 1 next year.
He said the increase would come on top of a $500 boost to annual base salaries as part of the 2012 EB8 agreement, due on March 31, 2015.
As a result a Grade 5 nurse at pay point 5 will earn an equivalent wage increase of 2.89 per cent in 2015.
Mrs Frecklington, said the increase would ensure nurses and midwives were not disadvantaged by an extension of time provided to complete the modernisation of the Nurses and Midwives’ award.
This extension, to the second half of 2015, was granted by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission in response to concerns expressed by the Queensland Nurses Union.
Mrs Frecklington said enterprise bargaining would follow the award modernisation process and would determine whether benefits and entitlements beyond 2.2 per cent would apply.
However, the Queensland Nurses’ Union described the pay increase as “substandard”.
QNU Secretary Beth Mohle said the shock pay decision came just weeks after the State Government decided to extend a nurse and midwife enterprise bargaining agreement by 12 months.
“Today we receive another unwanted surprise from Mr Springborg in the form of a 2.2 per cent pay rise which falls well under the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recommended figure of 3 per cent,’’ Ms Mohle said.
“Our members will be shocked to learn this decision has been made without consultation or negotiation and they will certainly not put up with going backwards in terms of pay.”
Ms Mohle said it was not normal practice for industrial relations to be conducted in this way.
“We negotiated 3 per cent per annum increases under the current enterprise bargaining deal and our members have worked so hard to demonstrate quantifiable productivity enhancements as part of this agreement,” she said.
“This is not industrial relations or negotiating as we know it. This government is ignoring long-established and proven channels and has taken matters firmly into their own hands.
“I am travelling around the State to attend meetings of delegates and members are telling me they firmly believe the government’s real agenda is to avoid being in dispute with them in the lead up to the next State election.
“If negotiations had continued as scheduled, this would have been the third State election in a row during which negotiations were underway to improve public sector pay and conditions.’’
