One day into a seven-week campaign of escalating industrial action by nurses and midwives in Western Australia, the state's premier has ruled out meeting their demand for a 10 per cent annual pay rise.
Mark McGowan insisted the government would not budge from a public sector wages policy it announced last month, saying it was "far more generous than [what] New South Wales or Victoria are offering".
The offer would see an extra $60 a week paid to anyone who earns less than $104,000 or a three-per-cent rise for anyone earning above that level.
It also includes a one-off $3,000 "cost of living" payment for all public workers who sign on.
"That's the position we have, it's very generous, far more generous than New South Wales or Victoria, but we just want to pay our nurses and public servants more immediately," the Premier told media this morning.
The Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) voted yesterday to demand that the pay offer be upgraded to $4,500, saying the government's offer came nowhere near meeting the rising cost of living and did nothing to attract new staff.
Patient ratios on the table
However, the premier said the government was working with the nurses' union in relation to nurse-to-patient ratios.
The ANF has long been calling for enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios in the state, and would like the government to consider a model used in Victoria which mandates a maximum of four patients to one nurse.
It is also demanding midwife-to-patient ratios, which count babies as part of the equation, something not currently done in WA.
Mr McGowan insisted the government was working with the nurses union cooperatively in relation to ratios, but that there were "complexities" unique to Western Australia.
"We have the biggest jurisdiction in the entire world," he said.
"So making sure whatever we put in place works in the specific circumstances, which is Western Australia, and ensures we provide the appropriate support to nurses but also makes sure it allows us to cater to the situation that confronts Western Australia, is what we want to work through."
Minister tells nurses to 'stand down'
Earlier on Thursday, Western Australia's health minister, Amber-Jade Sanderson, said there was more work to be done in assessing an independent review into hospital staffing levels, which could take some time.
Nurses and midwives voted on Wednesday to begin a seven-week campaign of industrial action, which would ramp up each week if their demands were not met.
It was set to begin with bans on staff working double shifts and overtime, and culminated in bed closures and an indefinite strike if the government didn't come to the table in seven weeks' time.
Speaking with ABC Radio Perth, Ms Sanderson called on nurses to be patient.
"My message to the ANF and to nursing staff is stand down, it is not necessary to take such extraordinary industrial action at this point."
Premier McGowan echoed this call, saying "we urge them not to do it, there's no need to".
Industrial action 'pre-emptive': Minister
At yesterday's stop-work meeting, the union agreed to add these measures to their industrial action campaign each week:
- Week 1: Ban on double shifts
- Week 2: Ban on overtime shifts
- Week 3: Ban on accepting more patients than an area's designated capacity
- Week 4: Ban on part-time workers picking up extra shifts
- Week 5: A fortnight of day-long stoppages at various hospitals
- Week 6: Closing one in five hospital beds
- Week 7: Indefinite strike action.
The government insists it is bargaining in good faith despite ANF claims to the contrary.
"In terms of where we're at in the bargaining process, I would consider this escalation of industrial action to be pre-emptive and probably unnecessary at this point in the bargaining process," Ms Sanderson said.
"We're seriously considering all of their log of claims and we're working with them to improve their working conditions.
"There is a confluence of events here for the ANF, and that is they are in the middle of a union election as well."
Union election influence suggestion 'offensive'
Opposition Health Spokeswoman Libby Mettam said the suggestion industrial action was due to an upcoming union election showed the government was ignoring the genuine anger and fear of tens of thousand of nurses and midwives.
"To suggest this is about the ANF elections is an insult to health workers and illustrates how out of touch this Premier has become with the issues affecting WA hospitals," she said.
"The McGowan government's lack of urgency when it comes to fixing this issue is deeply disturbing."
Ms Mettam said the opposition was seriously concerned about how quickly the planned actions would become too much for the hospital system to cope with, but said the Premier had the power to prevent it.
"We're calling for the McGowan government to fix this, to come to the table and negotiate with our health workers," she said.
"[They] have gone from being the highest paid in the country under the former government to now one of the lowest paid.
"It is concerning that there is such a disconnect between the Premier, who brags about a budget surplus, and nurses who are now some of the lowest-paid workers in nursing in this country."
ANF Chief Executive and former State Secretary, Mark Olson, suggested it was the government who was more interested in Monday's union election rather than ANF nurses, two thirds of whom historically do not even vote.
"They're [the government are] hoping there is a change of leadership and that will make their life a little bit easier," he said.
"We're not sure what the government thinks will change regardless, if there is or isn't a change of ANF leadership.
"It's not going to change the frustration and the anger of the 20,000 ANF members working in the public sector, and it certainly is not going to change the frustration and anger of the 2,500 nurses who were at the meeting yesterday."
ANF says government claims don't stack up
Mr Olson said the government's claims it needs significantly more time to consider nurse-to-patient ratios did not stack up.
"The ANF is not expecting the government to have a working model by tomorrow, or by next week, what we're asking the government is to commit to ratios," he said.
"And we will work with you to figure out how we can implement ratios without causing too much carnage in our health system."
Mr Olson also refuted claims that an independent report by former Chief Nurse, Professor Phillip Della, did anything but clearly call for nurse-to-patient ratios.
"It's pretty damn clear, maybe they're not that bright down at the Health Department or maybe they are being deliberately obtuse," he said.
He also questioned the Premier's fears over potential "unintended consequences" of implementing ratios.
Mr Olson said the system had been proven to work in Victoria and to be adaptable to events such as winter illness amongst nurses.
"I can tell you what some other unintended consequences will be if we don't implement them, patients will be harmed, patients will die, nurses and midwives will continue to be burnt out," he said.
"They will leave the system and they will go to Victoria, or South Australia, or Queensland, or the ACT.
"Where they have, not only nurse-to-patient ratios enforceable, but they also have much higher wages."
The first stage of the industrial action is due to begin on Wednesday.
