'National action’ by nurses?

Press, 10 August 1981, Page 6

'National action’ by nurses?

PA Wellington Nurses would consider national action against a Hospital Services Tribunal decision not to increase principal nurses’ salaries by 20 per cent, said a Nursing Association spokesman yesterday. The acting president of the Wellington branch of the Nurses’ Association, Miss M. Laws, said the action would not affect patient care. “For that reason a go-slow of any action like that would be inappropriate,” she said. The association rejected last November, ; the 15.7 per cent wage increase to public servants so that it could take' its claims to the tribunal. The association wanted the maximum wage for principal nurses at Auckland, Waikato, and Wellington hospitals increased to recognise their

staffing, administrative, and financial responsibilities. In a majority decision the tribunal said it had not been convinced that relativity between principal nurses and hospital managers, set in 1977, should be disturbed.

It agreed to a $250 annual allowance to mid-wives in view of their special qualifications. The association had sought $5OO. Miss Laws said that the association felt if it could get principal nurses’ salaries raised, everybody would benefit.

'.The August meeting.of the Wellington branch had suggested lobbying, marching, and publicising the* issue...to the association’s national' executive, which will co-ordi-nate all protest action: Other branches hold meetings later this month. ■