The industrial action will start with administrative bans on the use of electronic diaries, responding or writing work-related emails, submission of statistics and attending work-related meetings.
Talks between the Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) and Warrnambool City Council began in February but have failed to reach an agreement.
The acceptable industry workload for a full-time maternal and child health nurse is between 125 to 135 birth enrolments. Warrnambool City Council maternal and child health nurses are responsible for 151 birth enrolments.
The Warrnambool City Council nurses are also paid at the bottom of the scale compared to maternal and child health and immunisation nurses in other metropolitan and regional councils where these nurses are paid up to 18.5 per cent higher. The nurses are seeking to restore historical wage parity.
Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick said: "Nurses never take industrial action lightly but they feel Warrnambool City Council isn't listening to their concerns and doesn't understand that to maintain this important primary health service it has to pay nurses properly and address high workloads when care could be compromised.
"ANF is hopeful the Council will agree to hold further negotiations before Monday so we can try to work through these issues that are important to the nurses and important to the families in the Warrnambool area who rely on this primary health service.
"ANF understands the Council notified staff today that it will begin paying a four per cent or $36 per week pay rise to staff, back paid to July, regardless of the fact that there is no agreement with any of the unions involved. The Council is ‘thumbing its nose at legislative provisions relating to the good faith bargaining principles that are contained in the Australian Fair Work Act. The unions have been nominated as lawful bargaining agents for council employees, and the Council's actions ignore the resolutions of its employees who have instructed the unions to continue negotiations with the Council. The Council is putting its head in the sand ignoring the consequences of being one of the lowest paying councils in the area and trying to divide staff member against staff member," Ms Fitzpatrick said.
"My concern is that in the very near future, this council will be forced to spend thousands of ratepayers' dollars unnecessarily on consultants to understand why it can't recruit and keep these highly qualified and specialised maternal and child health and immunisation nurses in the area. The Council can't expect to keep a specialised regional service running by paying the third lowest wages in the state and demanding the highest workloads," she said.
The nurses will meet again on Monday 13 September to consider any developments in the negotiations.
