Unhappy nurses have denied claims they are ?very positive? about a new pay deal and unleashed a litany of complaints about both salaries and working conditions.

The Bermuda Hospitals Board and the Bermuda Public Services Union announced the pay deal on Wednesday. Major changes in the two-year agreement include a 3.1 percent pay rise in the first year and a 3.2 percent rise in the second. Overtime caps were also increased by one step in each year of the agreement for employees in the hospital scale and nursing scale categories.

But, while the BPSU and BHB both expressed their pleasure and described nursing staff as ?very positive? about the changes, nurses themselves characterised the changes as ?ridiculous?.

They called the agreement ?lip service?, and said it does not represent the cost of living.

?Even if we did get the cost of living, we haven?t had a raise in more than four years,? added one nurse.

Pay has been increased as the cost of living has, but as Bermudian nurse Kevin Beane said: ?Giving an increase only consistent with cost of living is not a raise. Especially when it is miscalculated.?

Most nurses said that they had less influence at the bargaining table than other workers because they were reluctant to strike and put their patients? lives at risk.

?So long as nurses feel they have to do that we will never crawl out of this,? said one.

Most of the nurses were unwilling to have their names made public because as contract workers they feared retribution.

With a shortage of Bermudian nurses, the overwhelming majority of nurses at the hospital are expatriates ? and they warned that unless pay and conditions improved the Island would be hit with a shortage of nursing staff.

There is already a ?severe shortage? at the hospital, according to staff.

Ten percent of all the hours worked in the Emergency Room are overtime hours,? said Mr. Beane. ?What does that tell you??

?Departments are not even supposed to be allowing overtime,? said one nurse. ?So why aren?t they even addressing it? If every nurse refused to do overtime for three days, this place would be crippled.

?There?s such a shortage of nurses. It?s insane. Nobody wants to come here.?

?We are no longer getting nurses from England, they won?t come,? said another nurse. ?There?s been a lot of bad press over there. I would say there is a high turnover of nurses but ?turnover? is not the right word, as that suggests they are being replaced. This is a drain. Practically every shift is short of nurses.?

Salary offers are far more attractive overseas, especially in America, and especially for more senior nurses.

?Senior hospital nurses earn less than starting nurses at the prison, doctors? offices, and Government nurses,? said Mr. Beane.

Other nurses described being promoted to senior positions in record time because of the lack of experienced nurses to do the jobs. ?Things start falling through the cracks and care is compromised,? said one.

?There was a recruiting agency here from the States about a year and a half ago,? said one nurse. ?Now, everyone?s paperwork is finally going through, and those nurses are all starting to leave.

?Nurses from Jamaica cannot go to the US directly, so they use Bermuda as a stepping stone.

?We are not enticing nurses. We are going to end up with a severe deficit soon. Our main concern is that if we haven?t got the staff, the patients suffer. And it?s frustrating for us, because we know the care they should be getting, and we can?t give it to them.?

The hospital is not only suffering from shortages of staff ? nurses described battles over pillows and blankets between the ER and other wards, air conditioning which did not function properly in 50 percent of the rooms, and water leaks which are dealt with on a weekly basis.

?It?s not a happy climate, I don?t care what they say to the public,? said one.

Feelings about breaking away from the BPSU to form a nurses? union were mixed, however. While several said they thought it was the right path, some had concerns.

?It could work provided we have a large enough body of nurses who understand union issues,? said one. ?There?s no sense in breaking away from the union body unless you have some qualifications, can barter for pay and so on ? I?m not sure nurses could do that.?

The nurses who were in on the negotiations were ?on the roof, not in the trenches?.

?Why are they speaking for me? They don?t know what it?s like,? said one nurse.

When asked why, if the nurses were so unhappy with the deal, they still agreed to it, Mr. Beane said they were told ?say yes or get paid less?.

?We reluctantly voted yes,? he said.

A spokesperson for the BHB declined to comment on the issue.