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|  |  Nurses finally get contract but nursing shortage remains a serious concernPress Release September 12, 2005 TORONTO, Sept. 12 /CNW/ - After working for almost 18 months without a contract, the province's 45,000 hospital nurses are relieved to finally have one, but Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) President Lind a Haslam-Stroud says that Friday's arbitration decision won't address the main problems confronting nurses or "our ability to provide quality patient care." "While the new collective agreement represents a basis to build on in the future, this decision - as the arbitrator acknowledges - will neither help us to draw substantially more new nurses into the profession nor will it encourage many late-career professionals to remain longer on the job," said Haslam-Stroud, RN. "Consequently, patient care for Ontarians will continue to suffer." The imposed settlement gives hospital nurses a three per cent increase effective April 1, 2004 and a further three per cent hike as of April 1, 2005. On January 1, 2006, an additional 2 per cent wage increase will be granted to nurses with 25 years' experience. The Chair of the Arbitration Board stated, "The real work of addressing the concerns of RNs has to come from the employer and government." These issues, apart from salaries, include workload as well as health and safety conditions that place nurses among those professional categories most affected by workplace injury and illness. The decision does give registered nurses improvements in terms of benefits, including more vacation for long-serving employees, vision and dental coverage as well as payments for massage, physiotherapy and chiropractic treatments - an acknowledgement of the physical stress under which RNs labour. At the same time, the Board rejected proposals by the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) to gut job security and sick leave provisions. Employer suggestions to boost wages and benefits for new nurses at the expense of those already working were also declined by the Board. ONA, which recently launched a "Not Enough Nurses" campaign (a public affairs initiative designed to convince government and the public that understaffing in the province's health care facilities has reached crisis proportions), argues that patient care is suffering. Some 20,000 registered nurses are also due to retire over the next several years. According to Haslam-Stroud, "My colleagues have told me that although there have been ad hoc announcements of one-time funding, nurses are not seeing the changes that would allow them to provide the care our patients require. We are not seeing the new, permanent nursing jobs that Queen's Park has promised." ONA represents 51,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals across the province working in hospitals, long-term care, public health, community health and industry. For further information: ONTARIO NURSES' ASSOCIATION - Marc Young, ONA Public Relations (416) 964-8833, ext. 2267; Melanie Levenson, ONA Public Relations (416) 964-8833, ext. 2369
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