Central Coast public hospitals saw surgeries being postponed and longer wait times in emergency departments on Wednesday, November 13, as nurses and midwives joined colleagues statewide in a 24-hour strike.
NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) General Secretary Shaye Candish said the union had been forced to take the action after no progress on pay increases had been made during the four-week intensive negotiation period.
“This strike action isn’t taken lightly, but the government has left us no other choice,” she said.
“It cannot continue to underestimate the anger within the nursing and midwifery professions.
“Our members are extremely frustrated and disheartened.
“They have been holding on for an outcome on better pay, juggling challenging working conditions, trying to manage their bills in a cost-of-living crisis, and now they feel terribly let down.
“Not only is the State Government not willing to put any new money on the table to pay nurses and midwives adequately for the work they do, it also doesn’t have a solution to address the interstate pay and gender pay disparities.
“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 re-evaluate their careers.”
Candish said other female-dominated workers such as teachers, early childhood educators and aged care workers were well paid.
“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,” she said.
NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary, Michael Whaites said despite repeatedly saying that the wages cap had been removed, the government was refusing to put an offer to nurses and midwives that would address the underlying problems.
“This contradicts the government’s claims that they are trying to fix the gender pay gap or that they had any intention of negotiating with us,” he said.
“Instead, they are just offering the same to our workforce as every other public sector worker and failing to take our issues into account.
“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.
“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.
“The government cannot afford to lose any more nurses or midwives.
“It must fix this now, or the public health patients of NSW will suffer.”
A spokesperson for Health Minister Ryan Park said the Government had engaged in intensive negotiations with the union over four weeks as recommended by the Industrial Relations Commission.
“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 spokesperson 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.
“Unions fought to establish an Industrial Relations Commission and Court free from the wages cap.
“The Government and Association agreed to the recommendation of the Industrial Relations Commission that industrial action would not be taken until this matter was resolved through negotiation or arbitration if the Government provides an interim three per cent pay.
“While the government has acted in good faith in delivering on the interim pay rise, regrettably, the Association has backtracked on its commitment and called a strike for November 13.”