Thousands of NSW nurses and midwives will strike until midnight next Tuesday as the union criticized the state government’s refusal to adopt staff-to-patient ratios and a lack of transparency in its budget announcements.
The NSW Government has pledged over 10,000 new full-time healthcare staff in its 2022-23 budget, officially announced yesterday. But despite the staffing announcement weeks ago, the union said it was still unclear exactly how many new nurses and midwives would be hired and where they would be stationed.
Nurses will stop work again on Tuesday, following previous strikes in February and March.Credit:Peter Rae
In a statement to Herald published last week, NSW Health confirmed that the 10,000 figure included roles also advertised separately – such as 1,858 new paramedic roles and additional palliative care positions – as well as 1,636 positions that were part of a previous commitment four years to recruit 8,300 front-line health staff, which included 5,000 nurses and midwives.
“The sheer lack of transparency is palpable. There are currently widespread staffing shortages across the state and there is no guarantee that the government’s ‘health workforce boost’ will be used to fill gaps in staffing rosters now,” the secretary said. Acting General of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, Shaye Candish.
The union’s acting deputy general secretary, Michael Whaites, said the one-time $3,000 ‘thank you’ payment for healthcare workers did not compensate for a ‘real pay cut under the new 3 per cent wage policy. and the members weren’t impressed.
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“There are many who have helped this state in this time of need who will not get this payment, those who have run out and left, those in the private and elderly care sectors. These members rightly feel undervalued.
More than 70 of the union’s nearly 200 branches will stop work for periods ranging from two hours to 24 hours next Tuesday, June 28, with ballots still being counted. Another 16 branches also voted to take industrial action, but decided they could not “due to severe staffing shortages and a commitment to lifesaving care”.
In Sydney, the strike at hospitals in Liverpool and Bankstown will last 24 hours. In Westmead, Blacktown, Campbelltown and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, nurses and midwives will stop working for 12 hours.
Yesterday, public and Catholic school teachers across the state announced they would stage a joint 24-hour strike on June 30.