JourneyOnline
Blue Care announced on 4 August 2008 it will raise wages for nursing staff by 18 per cent over the next three years. The increase is part of the latest Blue Care Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) covering Registered Nurses, Enrolled Nurses and Assistant Nurses, and has been a welcomed by the QNU.
Blue Care and the QNU together signed the EBA after 10 months of negotiations and 96 per cent of nursing staff voting in favour of it. Improvements to the former agreement include four pay increases over three years and substantial increases in monetary allowances for uniforms, laundry, qualifications, on-call rates of pay and supervisory allowances.
To improve workplace conditions, the agreement has introduced a practical workload management tool to assist in managing the amount and causes of workload pressures. The paid long service leave entitlement will increase from 10 weeks to 12 weeks after 10 years of service, sick leave will be paid out on termination of employment, and nurses will be able to cash out a proportion of their annual leave.
There will also be bereavement leave for same sex partners.
