15 July 2013
The States Employment Board (SEB) has welcomed the decision by nurses and midwives to accept their latest pay offer. The results show that a majority of nurses and midwives who took part in the ballot are in favour of the updated offer.
In updating the original pay offer the SEB recognised the long-standing problem with pay parity between nurses, midwives and other health care workers, and has committed to tackling it.
The SEB described this offer as the first step in the redesign of nursing pay, which makes some progress towards closing the pay gap among health staff and addressing difficulties with recruiting and retaining nursing staff.
The chair of SEB, Senator Ian Gorst, said “I am pleased that nurses and midwives have accepted this offer. They have now joined the Police, Prison and Fire services, who have all reached amicable settlements, the latter two of which included redesigned pay structures.
“This award means we can continue the work that has begun to tackle differences in pay between different health pay groups.
“We remain confident that the majority of our staff understand the importance of long term sustainability of the public service, as we know that significant investment will be needed in the years to come.”