VICTORIA'S top health bureaucrats were given a 46 per cent pay rise last financial year, worth more than $57,000 each.

The increase has infuriated nurses, who are locked in a wage row with the state government, which is offering a basic 2.5 per cent pay rise, plus any negotiated productivity savings.  

The Victorian Department of Health's annual report shows its 47 executives were paid an average of almost $180,975 each last financial year, compared with $123,614 the year before.


It was by far the biggest increase in the state bureaucracy, with executives typically given 15 per cent more pay across 11 government departments, excluding bonuses.

Australian Nursing Federation state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said it was disgusting, with the average pay rise for each executive enough to employ a nurse with eight years experience.  

''The thought that comes to mind is pigs around a trough,'' she said.  

The shadow minister for industrial relations, Tim Pallas, said it was incumbent on Premier Ted Baillieu to explain why government executives deserved pay rises far in excess of that being offered nurses, teachers and other public servants.

''While the Department of Health is looking to lock out nurses, its department executives have each happily pocketed a 46 per cent increase in total remuneration,'' he said.  

''Mr Baillieu wants to keep down wages of hard-working nurses and cut nurse numbers, yet he is happy for departmental executives to receive significant salary increases well above the government's 2.5 per cent pay offer for public sector workers.'  

A spokeswoman for Health Minister David Davis said the assessment for was not valid for health department executives because the reporting requirements were different between the two financial years. Nor did the analysis consider other entitlements ''outside of normal salary provisions,'' she said.

An analysis of the annual reports of 11 government departments shows there were 639 executives in 2010-11. That was 33 fewer than the previous year, although the total wage bill jumped to $118.5 million from $108.0 million. The best-paid executives were from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, with an average wage of $214,754, up from $196,429 the previous year.

Department of Human Services executives got the second-biggest increases, with the annual average salaries rising by 34 per cent, a jump of $40,622.

But Mr Baillieu appears to have practiced what he is preaching when it comes to his own department. Executives from the Department of Premier and Cabinet collected an average of 2.3 per cent less, although numbers there increased from 41 to 44. The government also awarded members of Parliament a basic 2.5 per cent increase, well below a remuneration tribunal recommendation, and well below the pay offer set to be received by federal politicians.

Nurses remain locked in talks after previously defying an order by the industrial umpire to cease a campaign of bed closures. This follows revelations in The Sunday Age of a cabinet plan to slash the annual nursing budget by cutting nurse-patient ratios.  

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/health-bureaucrats-win-46-pay-rise-20111201-1o976.html#ixzz1fJbcmRbu

It's an utter disgrace that nurses are held to ransom by their own objective to care for people.
The job that they do is extremely difficult and very much heartfelt.
Nurses are also sacrificing their emotions day in day out, they need a bit of help from the general public.

Money won't do it, but it may go towards a slight aspect of appreciation for the heartfelt job that they do.
They are absolutely magnificent, and all they want is a little appreciation.

blackadder wrote on Dec 2^nd, 2011 at 6:51am:




Bet you change your tune if/when you find yourself in need of these despised, overpaid nurses.

Attitudes like yours make me want to barf!

blackadder wrote on Dec 2^nd, 2011 at 6:51am:


What a ridiculous comment!
Entitlements have been on the downturn ever since Johhny fukhole.
You have absolutely no idea about working odd hours, so don't even speak about it OK?

Nurses need to sacrifice their prime objective to make people sit up and notice. There is no law against withdrawing care.

What a ridiculous comment!
Entitlements have been on the downturn ever since Johhny fukhole.
You have absolutely no idea about working odd hours, so don't even speak about it OK?

I don't huh?

How many joints have you had this morning?

Go away, you lack life experience.

It's quite simple to know what you don't know.

Sure mate, you don't know nothing.

How 'bout entering the room properly before you spout your wisdom?

All that I am saying is that you should respect nurses for the amazing job that they do. And for the amazing emotional control that they have.

There is no bureaucrat which could match them IMO. In my experienced opinion.

When you need them, you will agree with me.