Tim Nicholls says conditions for Qld nurses and midwives are ‘nation-leading’
Health Minister Tim Nicholls remains adamant negotiations for wages and conditions for Queensland’s nurses and midwives are “nation-leading” despite backlash.
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Health Minister Tim Nicholls remains adamant negotiations for wages and conditions for Queensland’s nurses and midwives are “nation-leading”, despite backlash from the Queensland Nurses and Midwives’ Union (QNMU).
The QNMU on Monday slammed the “unprecedented” ultimatum that resulted from the latest round of wage negotiations after their contract expired two months ago.
The union was joined by the Queensland Council of Unions, Australian Workers Union, Queensland Teachers Union, and others on Monday morning at a rally to publicly reject the current wage offer of an average of 2.67 per cent per annum for the next three years, saying it did not meet nationally leading wages and conditions.
“These negotiations have been underway for some time. In fact, one of the first groups that I met on becoming health minister was the state secretary of the QNMU. And we’ve got, and have had, an ongoing and very worthwhile relationship,” he told 4BC radio on Tuesday.
“We’re in the midst of an enterprise bargaining agreement … there are 55,000 plus nurses and midwives across Queensland Health, and we’re in the midst of a negotiation. We’ve made an offer that will maintain nation-leading wages and conditions, we believe, and put that on the table for those who are already well paid.
“The benchmark that the union claims is Victoria, and our offer, we believe, matches the Victorian, maintaining our nation-leading position in all but the last four months of the next agreement.
“So all but the last four months of the next three years, Queensland nurses’ wages and conditions will be better than those in Victoria.”
Mr Nicholls said Queensland Health had been employing “safety ambassadors” to protect nurses across the state’s hospitals.
“We actually don’t want people to be handcuffed in hospitals. That’s not what we’re talking about. That’s the wrong signal, and that is not the case,” he said.
“What we’re saying is we’re employing people, we call them safety ambassadors, and they walk the floor and defuse the situation. I’ve seen them at work at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, they diffuse the situation before it gets to that need.
“We certainly don’t expect that. We expect our nurses to be protected, and that’s why we’re putting on security personnel and these ambassadors and giving them the tools and the training they need to protect our nurses.
“We are maintaining our commitment, and that is to make sure that our Queensland nurses and midwives have nation-leading pay and conditions and the pay is one very important part of it.
“That’s why we’ve got the uplift in the final part of the term, to make sure that we remain nation-leading, as we are at the moment and as we will be for the next two years.”
Originally published as Tim Nicholls says conditions for Qld nurses and midwives are ‘nation-leading’
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