QLD nurses to vote on draft pay deal

New agreement provides a three per cent annual pay rise and improvements to allowances and working conditions.

Queensland nurses and midwives are to vote on a new workplace agreement after a draft deal was reached with the new LNP government in record time.

The Queensland Nurses Union (QNU) re-entered negotiations last week, keen to maintain gains made during five months of talks with the previous state government.

QNU secretary Beth Mohle said a draft agreement was struck after just one day of renewed negotiations with Queensland Health.

"We had a few issues that were outstanding (and) we were able to at least reach an agreement on the vast majority of those and put a package to our council," Mohle told reporters in Brisbane on Friday.

"Our council's determined that it's a sufficient enough package to go to members for consideration in a ballot."

If nurses and midwives accept the agreement, they will receive a wage increase of three per cent per annum, or $30 per week (whichever is greater), backpaid from April 1.

An experienced bedside registered nurse can expect to receive an extra $42 a week under the deal.

Other gains include a $500 one-off payment for employees in 2015, improvements to workload management and increased penalty rates for Sunday night shifts.

The union had hoped to increase penalty rates for all night shifts across the board.

Mohle said the fast resolution of negotiations was down to good organisation.

"We kept ... finalising whatever issues weren't actually in need of negotiating during the election process," she said.

"We knew very well what the issues were that were outstanding and as you know we've been campaigning very hard around those."

A ballot to finalise the deal will be put to the 32,000 nurses and midwives employed by Queensland Health within two months, Mohle said.

She said the outcome was by no means certain.

"Certainly it is the case that the recent admin and operational agreement had a very good ballot return ... so if past ballots are anything to go by, that particular deal was acceptable to those workers," she said.

"But we just can't pre-empt the outcome of the ballot."

AAP

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