NURSES’ WAGES TO BE RAISED

Southland Times, Issue 24236, 20 September 1940, Page 6

NURSES’ WAGES TO BE RAISED

INCREASES OF £5 A YEAR FOR JUNIORS

The wages of first, second, and thirdyear nurses in hospitals under the control of the Southland Hospital Board will be increased by £5 a year in each case. Whereas they were £4O, £5O and £6O a year respectively, they will now be £45, £55 and £65. The increases will cost the board £2OO for the remainder of the financial year. After disclosures made by Mr W. M. Norman at the board’s August meeting that the low scale of wages was causing hardship to junior nurses, the board deputed the executive committee to investigate the possibility of granting increases. It was stated at the August meeting that the net wages received by first-year nurses after taxation had been deducted amounted to 31d an hour. The executive committee recommended that £5 increases be granted and this was adopted without comment at the board’s meeting yesterday. The executive committee also recommended that the Hospital Boards Association be advised that because of the fact that no provision had been made in the current year’s estimates, the board was unable to grant a 5 per cent, increase in wages to all employees not covered by awards. The wages of all employees covered by awards or industrial agreements were recently raised 5 per cent, by general order of the Arbitration Court.