New South Wales public sector nurses and midwives are preparing to walk off the job again in the latest union-led industrial action for higher wages.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association has warned that its members will commence a 24-hour strike at the beginning of the morning shift tomorrow, Wednesday 13 November, “to demand the NSW government value our professions”.
The NSWNMA has been pushing for a 15 per cent pay rise, participating in negotiations with the NSW government for months with no deal struck. Now, the union has announced its plan to strike again despite agreeing to halt industrial action as an exchange for an interim three per cent wage increase in September.
The Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) has criticised the repeated hospital walk outs, saying the union is “acting contrary to the commitment it gave the commission” during a hearing on Friday and recommended workers cease industrial action while pay negotiations continue.
NSWNMA assistant general secretary Michael Whaites said the government must find a way to increase wages for the state’s nurses and midwives otherwise “the public health patients of NSW will suffer.”
“From May to October, we have showed up to Ministry of Health negotiations and participated in good faith. We identified savings to fund our claims, but no formal offer was made on pay, night duty penalties or salary packaging,” said Mr Whaites.
“The government says it’s delivering nurse-to-patient ratios and that it can’t provide a decent pay increase, too. The government expects that nurses and midwives stay low paid in order to staff the hospitals. The very real risk is that ratios will be no more than a commitment on paper unless they deliver competitive and attractive rates of pay so they can recruit.
“We are calling on the Premier and Treasurer to intervene and direct new money into the Health budget to address the interstate and gender-driven wage disparity impacting nurses and midwives.”
Related stories: “Value us!” – Industrial action escalates to 24hr strike | State-wide strike! NSW public health sector demands 15% pay rise | Inadequate pay rises for NSW nurses and midwives’ creates “wage curse”
At last week’s IRC hearing, the Commissioner called tomorrow’s planned industrial action “unnecessary,” and referred to two prior instances where the union contravened orders to cease hospital walk outs, The Daily Telegraph reports.
NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park joined the IRC in urging the union to reconsider taking industrial action this week, and has said that going ahead would mean backtracking on their previous commitment to the state government.
“The parties reached in-principle agreement on each and every non-wage claim sought by the Association, including: consecutive days off; no night shifts before annual leave; no changes on published roster without consultation and additional union consultation,” the Health Minister said.
“We worked through a range of options to fund and deliver a new increased wage offer and we have asked the Industrial Relations Commission to progress the matter to arbitration.”
However, NSWNMA general secretary Shaye Candish said that the union has been “forced” to take further action, as four weeks of intensive negotiations with the government has not yielded a significant wage increase.
“This strike action isn’t taken lightly, but the government has left us no other choice. It cannot continue to underestimate the anger within the nursing and midwifery professions,” said Ms Candish.
“We have some of the lowest paid nurses and midwives in the country, yet we continue to see record activity in our emergency departments and across the public health system. It’s no wonder nurses and midwives are continuing to move interstate or reevaluate their careers.
“Almost 70,000 public sector nurses and midwives across the state are worse off, and they will continue to slip further down the pay and conditions ladder, if this government doesn’t step up and deliver a decent wage increase for its single largest female workforce.”
Hear from NSWNMA’s Shaye Candish and Michael Whaites on tomorrow’s strike:
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