Nurses have struck a deal with the Bermuda Hospitals Board to increase pay over the next two years, in a move which BHB chairman Jonathan Brewin said helped lay the foundation for greater communication between staff and the Board.

The BHB and the Bermuda Public Services Union (BPSU) gave some details of the collective bargaining agreement at a press conference yesterday. Main changes include salary increases of 3.1 percent in the first year and 3.2 percent in the second year of the agreement.

The overtime cap will be increase by one step in each year of the agreement for employees in the hospital scale and nursing scale salary grades.

The changes are backdated to October 1, as the last collective agreement in place expired on September 31. The BHB?s 900 BPSU members had been informed of the agreement and response was ?very positive?, said chief negotiator Orin Simmons.

The agreement was negotiated in seven meetings held over two months, using the interest-based bargaining approach which included participating in a joint-training session conducted by professors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Both parties raised their agreement requests at the beginning of the negotiations, with sub-committees formed to look at each issue before bringing it to the main committee for final agreement.

?As a result... parties have been able to achieve a settlement which is to the benefit of the organisations and, most importantly, the employees in a relatively short period,? said BHB human resources director and negotiation chair Scott Pearman.

BPSU general secretary Ed Ball, Jr. said interest-based bargaining had been a practice at the BPSU for years, and he was glad to see it being put to use here.

Hospitals world-wide were suffering from ?untold expenses and strains? and negotiations such as these were an effort to minimise the pressure while maintaining the quality of care, he said.