27 August 2004

Nurse Maude Strike Action Set For Monday

200 nurses employed by Canterbury’s Nurse Maude Association are set to walk off the job on Monday, New Zealand Nurses Organisation organiser Joy Coughlan said today.

Joy Coughlan said the NZNO members working in the Hospital Dementia Units, Palliative Care and Hospice and District Nursing Services would leave work at 8am for four hours.

“Our members are very disappointed that Nurse Maude has made no further efforts to achieve a negotiated settlement and avert the strike action,” she said.

Joy Coughlan said it was also disappointing that NZNO had received no response from the Nurse Maude Board to a letter outlining their concerns.

“This strike action is timed to ensure minimum disruption to patients yet show the employer how serious the issues are to our members,” she said.

She said this was only the second time that Nurse Maude staff had been forced to resort to industrial action.

“Nursing staff care about their patients and do not take strike action lightly, but we cannot have first rate service when nursing staff do not receive market rate wages and conditions,” she said.

Joy Coughlan said the cause of the dispute was how far the Nurse Maude staff lagged behind their counterparts in DHBs.

“There is no reason why our members at Nurse Maude should earn thousands of dollars less than nurses doing the same job at another Christchurch hospital,” she said.

“The offer by the Nurse Maude association falls far short of the majority of other hospitals in Christchurch in terms of nurse salaries, sick leave and weekend payments,” she said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media