Dental Nurses Take to the Street

Dental nurses walked off the job in Melbourne today and made clear to Victorian Health Minister Bronwyn Pike exactly how angry they are about their sub-standard pay and conditions.

A crowd of almost 100 dental nurses, who are members of the Victorian No 1 branch, held a stopwork and protest to coincide with the opening of the new Royal Dental Hospital in Carlton.

Arriving to perform the official opening, Ms Pike found herself surrounded by the Health Services Union members.

The nurses followed the Minister into the building waving banners and calling for their specialised skills to be recognised by fairer wages.

The dental nurses are unhappy that they continue to be poorly paid despite millions being poured into the new development.

Their dissatisfaction came to a head as negotiations for a new enterprise agreement stalled last week.

The dental nurses are upset that hospital management have failed to make reasonable wage offers, are offering provision for a paltry 2 weeks maternity leave and are effectively removing other entitlements such as afternoon tea breaks.

The stop-work lasted for 4 hours. Nurses will return to work tomorrow and bans will commence on Friday.

The bans will escalate to rolling stoppages in a couple of weeks if management do not start to bargain in good faith.

HSU organiser Marco Bolano said the stopwork was a huge success, showing exactly how angry and united the members are.

''The action will continue until these members get decent wages and conditions,'' he said.

''It is just not good enough that dental nurses get paid far less than other health professionals.

''Getting paid around $14 an hour is just not enough when you consider the dedication of these staffmembers and the professionalism they display every day.''

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Last Modified: Wednesday, 16-Nov-2005 17:18:55 EST