NSW paramedics and public healthcare employees will probably be calling for a 6.5 per cent pay rise, with one of many state’s greatest unions threatening extra industrial motion, together with strikes, if union calls for usually are not met.
Tensions between the Health Services Union and the state authorities have continued to mount, with NSW secretary Gerard Hayes flagging additional stop-work motion at Liverpool Hospital subsequent week.
HSU members like nurses, radiographers, paramedics, safety and cleansing workers are set to work off the job at one in every of Sydney’s largest hospitals.
“This will escalate consistently until we get to where we need to be,” Mr Hayes stated.
“When I speak to people saying as a husband and wife, they have to move back to their parents’ place because they can’t afford to live as a family, something has got to give.
“Industrial actions will continue and it will not stop.”
Paramedics and affected person transport officers started a 24-hour ban on discharges from Thursday 6am, affecting sufferers scheduled to be transferred to residential and aged-care amenities. Discharges have been, nevertheless, continued for these receiving end-of-life care and dialysis.
HSU’s six calls for to ‘de-escalate’ dispute
Mr Hayes has additionally written to Premier Chris Minns, define six calls for to “de-escalate” the dispute.
Seen by NCA NewsWire, the calls for embrace eradicating the general public sector wages cap plus a one-time 6 per cent pay improve and a 0.5 per cent bump to superannuation from July 1, 2023.
This will coincide with the expiration of present awards on June 30.
The HSU additionally referred to as for reform to how awards and wage packaging charges are structured, plus a NSW royal fee into healthcare funding that Mr Hayes says will establish financial savings that would pay for the union’s calls for.
Although Mr Hayes says some progress has been made with regard to establishing a royal fee, there was “no movement” in wage negotiations.
“He’s sidelined all the HSU members, there’s no doubt about that,” Mr Hayes stated.
“People who have been at the coalface, people who’ve worked incredibly hard and the paramedics that he came and saw.
“The health sector as I‘m sure you’re aware over the past four years has changed dramatically.”
However, Mr Minns remained assured his authorities would make “headway” in union negotiations. While he couldn’t affirm when laws could be launched to scrap the wages cap, he stated negotiations have been necessary to make sure a “productivity-based wages system” that protected the “NSW taxpayers’ budget”.
“At the end of the day, no one wants industrial action, least of all me,” he stated.
“We’re still committed to that ultimate aim. It’s going to be rocky at different points but we’ll get there.”
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman referred to as for extra transparency on how the Premier would scrap the general public sector wages cap.
“Mr Minns needs to come clean. He needs to explain to the people of NSW what negotiations he’s going to undertake with the unions and how he’s going to pay for it,” he stated.
Opposition well being spokesman Matt Kean stated Mr Minns had created a “real crisis entirely of his own making”.
“We don’t support the strike today; however, we understand the frustration of frontline health workers who were promised one thing by Chris Minns and are getting something completely different.”
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