Examples Of Nurses’ Pay

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 6

Examples Of Nurses’ Pay

Examples of changes in nurses’ pay as the result of the new conditions introduced on April 1 were given to the North Canterbury Hospital Board yesterday by the secretary (Mr J. G. Laurenson). ' The examples were taken at random from the last fortnight’s pay sheets, he said. A night sister who would have earned £45 13s 4d living out under the old regulations would have received £65 2s Id for the fortnight without Easter payments; with Easter coming in the period, she received £75 6s 4d. “This was possibly an exceptional case. The sister would soon run into the limit on overtime if she went on earning at this rate,” Mr Laurenson said. A ward sister who would have been paid £37 13s under the old system would have received £39 Ils 8d if the fortnight had been normal; this meant she would have received no net increase over

the old scale if she were living in. Her actual gross wages for the fortnight, including Easter, were £44 15s 10. A third-year student nurse who would have been paid £26 3s under the old regulations got £35 15s 4d, including Easter pay. The rate for a normal fortnight would have been £33 8s lOd. A flrst-year student nurse with university entrance received £33 12s 9d for the Easter fortnight, compared with £3l 14s 8d for a normal fortnight, or £2O 15s 4d under the old system. A hospital aid at a country hospital who would have been paid £23 12s at the old rate, or £27 10s 2d in an ordinary fortnight, under the new regulations got £29 14s 3d for the Easter fortnight. Under prevailing conditions of work, a first-year student nurse got about £9 clear after

deduction of keep and tax, said Mr Laurenson.

Asked by the acting medical superintendent-in-chief (Dr. W. I. Paterson) whether it was possible for a nurse to lose pay under the new regulations as compared with the old, Mr Laurenson said that a person working Monday to Friday and living in could lose by the change.