NO INCREASE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1941, Page 11

NO INCREASE

SALARIES OF NURSES

AUCKLAND DECISION

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, April 7,

A resolution adopted at the previous meeting of the Auckland Hospital Board granting nurses an increase of £5 a year in salary was rescinded at tonight's meeting of the board on a motion of which the chairman, Mr. A. Moody, had given notice.

Mr. Moody said,that at the previous meeting when the annual report on salaries was before the board a member had moved a "snap" motion to give the nurses an increase of £10. When that was defeated another member had moved an increase of £5, and a majority of the board had fallen into the trap. The increase had never been asked for by the nurses. They had received a 5 per cent, increase not long ago, and their present salaries in successive years were £54 12s. £65 2s, £75 12s, and £99 15s. Their board and lodgings was, worth a further 30s a week. They had additional perquisites, including free uniforms and laundry, and received free training for a profession in which they could earn a good living in almost any part of the world. He felt that if any class of employee deserved an increase it was the sisters in charge of wards. The decision involved an additional £2500 a year, which in the face of the present general outlook was unjustifiable.

The motion was carried by six votes

to five,

To waiting time at the., Pitt Street loop on the Wadestown tram line, a second loop is to be laid down at the terminus.