Nurses vote to leave unsafe islands
28.03.2008
NURSES in the Torres Strait will leave 11 of the islands today, accusing the Queensland Government of failing to provide them with safe workplaces.
The nurses last night voted to walk off the job after last-minute talks with the Government failed to convince them that urgent repairs to their living and working quarters on the islands had made them safe.
The industrial action was sparked by the alleged rape of a 27-year-old colleague as she slept in her quarters on Mabuiag Island on February 5. The alleged rape, first revealed in The Australian earlier this month, occurred despite Queensland Health security reports over several years warning of the danger to nurses in remote communities.
Queensland Nurses Union secretary Gay Hawksworth said last night the nurses acknowledged steps had been taken in recent weeks to make their working and living conditions safer, but they were not satisfied.
``There is the issue of personal duress alarms that they are not happy with, and on several islands there is not even security lighting at the health centres,'' Ms Hawksworth said.
``The nurses are also unhappy that work gangs are turning up and each one that arrives asks for a list of what has to be done, yet these nurses have supplied list after list over a long period.
``They want the work to be co-ordinated and done properly to bring the facilities up to a safe and secure standard, and as a union we are supporting them.''
Ms Hawksworth said between eight and 10 nurses would leave the islands today and travel to Thursday Island, home to the Torres Strait's major health centre. They have asked Queensland Health to find them work elsewhere. Ms Hawksworth said nurses, who felt ``very vulnerable'' and ``very angry'', had proposed providing a fly-in, fly-out service to the other islands at the Government's expense.
Nurses will meet again this afternoon to discuss how the industrial action will work.
The victim of the attack has not returned to work and it is believed she is considering legal action against Queensland Health for failing to provide a safe work environment.
The nurse had complained repeatedly in writing to Queensland Health, begging for work to be done to make her quarters safe, but there was no response.
In December 2005, local Labor MP Jason O'Brien wrote to state Health Minister Stephen Robertson appealing for urgent repairs to be approved to nurse accommodation on three other islands.
And in November 2006, the Queensland Government received an internal report, warning of significant risks to staff working in the remote communities ``that need to be addressed immediately''.
