Striking nurses have rejected an offer to fund their requested pay rise in return for delaying the rollout of their “big ask” for more staff, the New South Wales health minister says.
Nurses and midwives across NSW were “infuriated” before a 24-hour strike that began at 7.30am on Wednesday, days after NSW police won a pay deal that will see wages rise by up to 40%.
The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) has been negotiating with the state government since April, with the government not budging on a blanket 10.5% pay rise offered over three years for all NSW public-sector workers.
But on Monday the Police Association of NSW announced it had reached an agreement with the Minns government that would make NSW police the nation’s best paid, with wage increases ranging from 20.5% to 39.4% over four years.
“This offer will see the highest pay increases achieved in the last 30 years for NSW police [and] outstrips what we have seen accepted by other public-sector agencies,” Police Association of NSW president, Kevin Morton, said.
The nurses and midwives union had asked for an immediate 15% wage increase, citing higher rates of pay in other states and the cost-of-living crisis.
The union rejected an offer for the 15% increase to be delivered over multiple years and to deliver a slightly larger boost for early career nurses, the NSW health minister, Ryan Park, said.
But the union said the government had not entered negotiations willing to use extra money to fund pay increases.
Park said he was disappointed the union walked away from its commitment to negotiate before the Industrial Relations Commission.
“We honoured our end of the bargain … there was an expectation, though, that this industrial action was not going to take place,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Park said the government delivered the union’s “big ask” to begin the rollout of staffing ratios despite the billion-dollar price tag, but the pay rise was not possible to deliver in a single year.
“Teachers, paramedics and now police have all received historic, once-in-a-generation pay rises,” the NSWNMA general secretary, Shaye Candish, said.
“The decision to give police more than double the offer for nurses speaks volumes.”
Park said police had agreed to making changes to death and disability insurance, while teachers agreed to restructuring to fund increased wages. Nurses had not accepted a proposed delay in rolling out staffing ratios, the health minister said, while rejecting characterisations they were being asked to choose improved wages over patient care.
Candish said nurses and midwives have been leaving NSW for better pay elsewhere, amid struggles to “put food on the table”.
Candish said many were “infuriated” by the Minns government’s refusal to budge on its offer to the “biggest female-dominated workforce” in the country, describing it as “very clearly gendered”.
“We cannot get the government to sit down and negotiate with us meaningfully,” she said.
“Meanwhile, we’ve got paramedics, firies and police able to sit down and negotiate with the government … There’s very clear difference in how the gendered workforces are being treated.”
The statewide strike, the third major stop-work action from the union under the current Labor government, was estimated to force the postponement of 600 to 700 surgeries, according to NSW Health. Rallies were also planned for Sydney and in regional centres including Armidale, Broken Hill, Coffs Harbour, Crookwell, Moruya, Lismore, Port Macquarie, Taree and Tweed.
Emergency department wait times were also expected to blow out and people with non-life threatening conditions were urged to contact Healthdirect before arriving at hospitals. Minimal, life-preserving staffing were being maintained in all public hospitals and health services during the 24-hour strike.
Members are calling on the Minns government to address the wage disparity that has left NSW nurses and midwives the lowest paid in the country.
When pressed on the issue by reporters, the premier, Chris Minns, repeatedly pointed to the government’s election promise of improving nurse-to-patient ratios, saying the union had not brought up wage increases before the election.
“When we spoke to nurses and their association, they said to us … our number one priority is ratios, and that was a billion-dollar promise.”
He said the NSWNMA was “not prepared to make changes” like other unions across the state, leaving his government with “less to play with”.
Minns also pointed to the fact that Labor’s offer was better than the previous Coalition government had offered.
“I think it’s reasonable for the government to say, and certainly for the membership to hear from the government, it’s not the same offer as the Liberal party. It’s 40% more than their offer,” he said.
Candish said nurses and midwives “are on 2008 wages” while “paying 2024 prices for goods and services”.
“They’re at a point now where they’re struggling to put food on the table and make ends meet in this current cost-of-living crisis,” she said.
“They’re being forced to take more overtime to try and make ends meet, which is only contributing to more burnout, and the conditions that they’re working under are worse than they are in other states.”
In a fiery question time in parliament, the opposition drew attention to uniformed nurses in the gallery and suggested Labor walked away from pre-election pledges.
“What did you promise?” the state opposition leader, Mark Speakman, said.
“Other than [lifting] the wages cap, nothing,” Minns replied from his seat.
