Psychiatric nurses give strike notice

Press, 1 June 1978, Page 1

Psychiatric nurses give strike notice

More than 200 psychiatric nurses at Sunnyside Hospital might strike over a pay dispute. They accepted at a stopwork meeting yesterday a recommendation of the central committee of the hospitals group of the Public Service Association that 14 days notice be given of industrial action. The meeting was held in protest against a decision of a Cabinet committee to drop a pay margin which New Zealand’s 4000 psychiatric and psychopaedic nurses have over general nurses.

Speakers said that working conditions had eroded since psychiatric and psychopaedic hospitals had come under hos-pital-board control in

1966. The committee’s

decision was the final straw.

A first-year staff nurse who now received $6020 a year plus the $234 mentalhealth margin would get only $6OBO without the margin, a drop of $174. "We cannot possibly retain registered staff with such salary scales,” said Mr C. A. Bell, an assessor for the nurses in pay negotiations. The meeting urged the Minister of Labour (Mr Gordon) to negotiate with the nurses to avert industrial action.

"The last thing we want to do is walk out and leave our patients but we may be forced, with the present confrontation situation adopted by the Government, to take this stand,” said Mr Bell. Nurses at Lake Alice

Hospital, near Marton, have also given 14 days strike notice in support of claims for an increase in a bonus paid in recognition of the danger involved in working in the maximumsecurity unit, reports the Press Association.

About half of the 50 err so patients in the 56-bed unit have been convicted of murder and the others of crimes such as rape and arson.

The 40 staff are responsible for security, the individual counselling of patients, the serving of meals, the administration of any medication, and the supervision of daily school sessions.

The hospital’s superintendent (Dr S. L. Pugmire) said his staff deserved the payment they were claiming. Their present bonus

had not increased since the unit had opened about 12 years ago and was now worth "peanuts.” However, a strike was “impossible”: there was no other institution where the secure-unit patients could be held. The central district regional secretary of the P.S.A. (Mr A. Millar) said the secure-unit staff would man the “watchouse” in the event of a strike but would not enter the unit proper unless there was an emergency such as a big fight. The bonus had initially been worth 15 per cent of the psychiatric nurses’ rate but was now worth only about 5 per cent of that rate. The nurses had been offered an increase of only 2 per cent.