Nurses win major victory

May 7, 2003
Issue 

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE

HOBART — After a two-year struggle, the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) has successfully forced the Tasmanian state government to pay a postgraduate allowance to all qualified nurses.

On May 1, the Federal Court ordered the government to pay the allowance, which it back-dated to March 2001 for eligible nurses, with 7.25% interest, and some of the union's court costs.

The government had interpreted the March 2001 Enterprise Bargaining Agreement to mean that an allowance for nurses with postgraduate qualifications would only be paid to nurses who gained them through university based courses.

Nurses who received the same qualification as a result of hospital-based training were denied the allowance, even though all employing and registering bodies in the state made no distinction between hospital-based or university training.

As a result, some nurses received the allowance that was denied to the very people who gave them their training.

"Even nurses who were getting the allowance felt angry that their colleagues were not", ANF state secretary David Perry told Green Left Weekly.

The ANF and the Health and Community Services Union organised a protest rally in May 2002 and took the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission and then to the Federal Court.

In December 2002, the court found in ANF's favour after a test case involving nine nurses. Initially the government agreed to pay the allowance only to the nine nurses named in the case. This forced the union to again return to the court, resulting in agreement for the payment of the allowance to all eligible nurses.

During the same period as the campaign over postgraduate allowances, the ANF also had a major campaign for safer staffing levels — that is more nurses in hospitals. "A year ago, the government scoffed at our proposals for safe staffing levels" Perry said. However, earlier this year the union achieved a victory on this issue as well.

From Green Left Weekly, May 7, 2003.
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