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March 26th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Queensland’s nurses want to meet urgently with the new Liberal National Party (LNP) government to discuss a new wages deal.
The Queensland Nurses Union is seeking to finalise an enterprise bargaining agreement for thousands of nurses and midwives before the old one expires on Saturday.
Secretary Beth Mohle told AAP she wrote to premier elect Campbell Newman on Monday, hoping to salvage five months of negotiations that took place before the former Labor government went into caretaker mode.
“We don’t want to lose five months of negotiations and hope we can negotiate in good faith to get this over and done with,” she said.
Ms Mohle said the union was still not satisfied with several key points.
Also worrying is the LNP plan for a three per cent wages cap on public sector wages costs.
Before the election was called, the negotiating parties had agreed to a three per cent, or $30 a week annual payrise, whichever was greater.
Queensland Council of Unions president John Battams says the state’s growth means the cap is unsustainable.
Even if the LNP promised to exclude front line services like nursing from the cap, that would be bad news for the public sector as a whole, he said.
“If you are going to allow certain areas to grow faster than three per cent because they have to, that means you have to cut back everywhere else,” he told AAP.
Mr Battams said a LNP refusal to commit to public servant pay rises in line with inflation was also of concern.
“Given inflation is at 3.25 per cent I think public servants will be looking at payrises in that vicinity,” he said.
“All those figures don’t add up.”
The LNP has promised not to force redundancies to achieve the move.
Mr Battams believes a significant number of voluntary redundancies will be needed.
However, Mr Battams says he will discuss the issues with an “open mind” with Mr Newman at an upcoming meeting.
Mr Newman previously refused to meet with the QCU to sign a charter for Queensland workers during the election campaign.
The charter would guarantee public servants could still take wage disputes to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.
The LNP has since said it will keep the commission in tact.
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