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Nurses strike averted in Newfoundland and Labrador

Settlement in line wth other public sector contracts negotiated with the province in the current round of bargaining.

St. John's (21 May 2009) - A province-wide strike by the Newfoundland and Laborador Nurses' Union (NLNU) has been averted following the negotiation of a last-minute tentative agreement with the government.

The union says the proposed four-year deal, which must be ratified by more than 5,000 nurses across the province, will raise salaries dramatically. It includes an increase of 21.5% — in line with earlier public sector settlements – plus hikes for starting and top salary scales.

The nurses had been scheduled to strike on Wednesday.

"It was the crunch time," union president Debbie Forward said. "[We] were able to achieve something that both sides are satisfied with and we can recommend."

The nurses won a concession from the government on what is described as market adjustment, one of the two issues that remained unresolved for months. Instead of being able to hire a nurse at a higher wage than colleagues doing the same work in hard-to-fill jobs, the government will instead be able to pay bonuses.

On the other hand, their negotiators have agreed to a second clause that the government has been seeking. It will mean that an injured nurse can lose his or her job two years after being deemed permanently disabled.

"That compromise [of accepting the injured worker clause] was made in exchange for the new market adjustment language," Forward told reporters.

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