Nurses to get 14 per cent

by Brenda Seymour

NSW public hospital nurses have achieved a 14 per cent wage increase over three and a half years.

Justice Boland brought down his recommendation in the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) on May 20.

The Nurses Association has the right to keep negotiating their claim of 14 weeks paid maternity leave, long service improvements and trade union delegates' leave.

The Government placed the dispute in the IRC when the nurses were proposing strike action and asking for four per cent per annum from July 1, 2004 with the last payment on July 1, 2007.

In early March the Nurses Association rejected a State Government pay offer of four annual pay rises of three per cent between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2008.

The nurses called off their proposed strike on May 11 to enter the private arbitration before Justice Boland, and both the employer and the union agreed to be bound by his recommendations.

The payments are likely to be three per cent from January 1, 2005; three per cent from July 1, 2005; four per cent from July 1, 2006; and four per cent from July 1, 2007.

Brenda Seymour is the Assistant General Secretary (Research and Industrial).

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Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005