Nursing Contract Conciliation Process Adjourned

Health and Social Services Minister Jamie Ballem indicated this afternoon that the conciliation process to renew the nurses' collective agreement adjourned today without further progress having been made.

"We informed the nurses' union today that the Province has brought all its mandated resources to the table. We believe that our offer is a very good one. It is comprehensive, fair, and maintains our nurses at a competitive position within the Atlantic region," said the minister.

Minister Ballem said government remains convinced that putting additional resources towards payment for shift work is the right thing to do, in addition to competitive increases in hourly wage rates. "Right now, in order to ensure Islanders continued access to quality health care, our overwhelming challenge is to cover evening, night and weekend nursing shifts. We have less difficulty filling daytime shifts," said the minister. "Approximately 80 percent of our nurses work shift work, which often comes at a cost to nurses and their families. We've been advised by our front line nurse managers that our resources should go to the area of greatest need, and that need is clearly to cover off and compensate evening, night and weekend shifts."