Nurses reject low pay bid

MATER public nurses and midwives have overwhelmingly rejected a bid to pay them lower wages than Queensland Health employees doing similar work.

A ballot of 2300 nurses and midwives at the Mater Adult, Children's and Mothers' hospitals, has overwhelmingly rejected an 8 per cent pay offer over three years, backdated to April last year.

Queensland Health nurses received 9 per cent over three years soon after the Newman Government came to power in March last year.

Queensland Nurses Union secretary Beth Mohle said the Mater Health Services also wanted to significantly cut the professional development allowance paid to its nurses and midwives from $1500 to $500 a year and to remove the "no forced redundancies clause'' from its agreement.

Overall, she said experienced full-time Mater nurses and midwives would be about $2000 a year worse off than their Queensland Health colleagues.

Ms Mohle said the Mater Health Services had traditionally matched Queensland Health in relation to wages and conditions.

She said the union feared the decision by the Mater's non-government operators to push for an inferior deal to Queensland Health employees was linked to the potential privatisation of public hospitals in the state under an LNP Government.

Fears have been raised about the possibility of public services at both the new Sunshine Coast University Hospital and the Queensland Children's Hospital being outsourced to the private sector.

The QNU has been vocal against any attempts at outsourcing public health services, given private operaters are not as accountable as other public hospitals have to be.

"The Mater, especially in the context of a hospital privatisation debate, is trying to start the scale back of nurse and midwife wages and working conditions,'' Ms Mohle said. ``Our members can see straight through that.

"The vast majority of costs associated with healthcare relate to the costs of employing people. The bottom line is that our members know that they're worth more than what's being offered.

"They deserve the same as what their Queensland Health colleagues are being paid a couple of kilometres down the road at the Princess Alexandra Hospital for doing the same work."

Of the 2300 eligible Mater public nurses and midwives, 1300 voted in the ballot, with 87 per cent rejecting the offer.

Ms Mohle said the QNU had been trying to negotiate with the Mater Health Services for a new agreement since December 2011.

The last agreement expired in March last year.

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