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October 16, 1998
BCNU disputes employers' costing of nurses' proposals
HEABC has been issuing inflated estimates of the costs of the Nurses' Bargaining Association proposals.
We estimate the cost of our proposals to be about $80 million, and we anticipate that by phasing in some of our proposals the cost could be reduced further.
The reason the employers' figures are so much higher is that they have used a different methodology to develop their costing, and they have not anticipated a staging-in of some measures.
In responding to employer estimates, it is also important to point out that almost half of the increased costs in our proposals involve the creation of new nursing positions and the hiring of more nurses to improve the quality of care.
The extra money would not go into the pockets of existing nurses but go toward improving the quality of care and easing workload.
Further, all compensation improvements would have the effect of making nursing more attractive, thereby keeping nurses working in BC and attracting more young people into the profession and avoiding the serious shortage of nurses that is already harming patient care.
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