Tasmanian nurses back bans and want action
Release date: 10/12/2011
Nurses at another Tasmanian public hospital have unanimously supported a 48-hour statewide ban on overtime and double shifts to begin next week.
On Thursday, nurses at the Launceston General Hospital supported the ban and yesterday Australian Nursing Federation members at the North-West Regional Hospital in Burnie gave their full backing to the action.
Another stopwork meeting will be held at the Royal Hobart Hospital on Monday to see if the ban will roll out statewide.
Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Neroli Ellis said the ban on working overtime and double shifts would begin on Wednesday at 2.30pm. "We have given the health department time to make arrangements," she said.
"People are losing their jobs, moving interstate and not being able to pay their mortgages while $33 million is spent on luxury cars by this Government."
Ms Ellis said negotiations with the Department of Health and Human Services this week had not gone well and the jobs of 900 nurses on fixed-term contracts were still under threat.
Health Minister Michelle O'Byrne said yesterday the department was not sacking 900 nurses.
"In fact we have not sacked any nurses. There are nurses who are on fixed-term contracts and, as we have said many times, each position will be carefully considered when the contract comes up for renewal," she said.
Source: The Mercury
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