WAGES OF HOSPITAL STAFF

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 281, 22 August 1940, Page 5

WAGES OF HOSPITAL STAFF

Wairarapa Board To Seek Association’s Opinion QUESTION OF INCREASE FOR NURSES Dominion Special Service. MASTERTON, August 21. The five per cent, increase in wages granted workers under awards was the subject of a goon deal of dismission at a meetingot' the Wairarapa Hospital Board

today, and some difference of opinion was expressed on the subject of whether employees not subject to an award should be granted the increase.

“Board employees were given tin increase in wages last April for the very reason stated by the Court of Arbitration, namely, the increased cost of living,” sttid Mr. W. B. Martin. "Have we now got. to giye them an additional increase for exactly the same purpose?” The secretary, Mr. N. Lee: Some of the employees arc already receiving wages in advance of award rates.

The chairman: Mr. Mawley: I think that if we don’t give those not under an award the increase we are driving people into joining unions and such organizations.

Mr. Martin: The nurses were all given a rise earlier in the year. Anyway, the cost of living does not apply to these people. We proivde them with full board and part, clothing. The secretary pointed out that only the trained nurses received the increase in salary mentioned by Mr. Martin. The untrained nurses did not receive any increase.

On the motion of Mr. Clark it was decided that the board should communicate with the Hospital Boards Association for an opinion from other boards, with a view to uniformity, on the increase of 5 per cent, in the salaries of trained nurses, in view of the recommended scale of wages adopted in 1940. A motion by Mrs. J. Robertson that the student nurses’ salaries should be increased by 5 per cent, was withdrawn in favour of' one that the matter, with the board's opinion of the desirability of the increase, should be referred to lhe Hospital Boards Association for information regarding the steps being taken by other hosnital boards, on the understanding that any increase granted should be retrospective. The board decided to take no action toward increasing the salaries of the secretary or medical staff, or of the part-time medical staff.