Petition For Sick Pay Supported

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31124, 29 July 1966, Page 3

Petition For Sick Pay Supported

GV Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 28. Parliament's Petitions Committee today recommended the Government to give “favourable consideration” to the. petition of a nursing sister, Josephine Pearson, claiming compensation of £582 from the Otago Hospital Board in lieu of pay or sick pay. The committee chairman, Mr G. G. Grieve (Govt., Awarua) told the House Miss Pearson of Auckland claimed she had been forced to take sick leave when she was working at a hospital in Dunedin —even though no medical certificate could be produced to nrove she was sick. He said Miss Pearson received no pay between July, ‘1963, and March, 1964, •although not dismissed or on ‘sick leave. • “She felt she was due for ;some compensation,” said ■Mr Grieve. “The Otago Hos•pital Board offered her £2OO provided she abandoned all •future claims against the Aboard, but she declined the >offer. j “There was a majority opinion of my committee that the -Otago Hospital Board and the > Health Department should en- - deavour to agree on a reasontable sum for this claim,” he said. The Junior Opposition Whip, Mr R. Macdonald (Grey Lynn) said: “I fail to understand why the Otago Hospital Board decided she was unfit for duty. There was no medical certificate to support this. But the board decided she could not work and put her On sick leave until she ran out of her entitlement. If she was in the wrong, why was she offered £200?” Mr Macdonald said Miss!

Pearson had not got on “very well with the staff” of the hospital and was strict with junior nurses. “But I think the hospital board could have treated her better,” he said. The Government’s Senior Whip, Mr J. H. George (Otago Central)—who presented the petition—told the House: “There was some proof of the raw deal when the Otago Hospital Board offered £2OO to Miss Pearson.”