Work-To-Rule Confirmed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31656, 17 April 1968, Page 22

Work-To-Rule Confirmed

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 16. At a meeting at the Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital today more than 200 male and female nurses endorsed a move to work to rule after April 25 if the Health Department refused to provide more household staff. The nurses say they cannot give proper care to patients when they have to spend hours stoking the boiler,

scrubbing and polishing floors and cleaning windows. Mr M. B. Gittos, the Auckland branch secretary of the Public Service Association, said that it had been decided in Wellington to support the demand. The meeting passed three resolutions: That the male staff support the female staff in deciding to work to rule after April 25 if no agreement was reached. That the P.S.A. be asked to begin negotiating with the Minister of Health and . the department immediI ately on the matter. , That a committee would be

set up to work out precisely what duties would not be covered if the nurses resorted to working to rule.

The medical superintendent at Kingseat Hospital (Dr D. M. F. McDonald) said today that the hospital could employ only eight domestic staff and one man under the establishment laid down by the Health Department. Before August, 1967, it had been six. On this basis, he said, the hospital was fully staffed.

The Minister of Health (Mr McKay) has asked the hospital authorities to prepare a report on the staffing situation.