Nurses’ union’s big call over pay dispute

Nurses and midwives will strike for 24 hours across NSW next week following a breakdown in negotiations between the union and the state government.

Members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, or NSWNMA, will strike for one day from the beginning of the morning shift on Tuesday.

The NSWNMA said only minimal and “life-preserving” nursing staff will work throughout the walkout in public hospitals and health services.

The decision comes after what the union said was a failure by the NSW government to “demonstrate willingness to negotiate in good faith by close of business yesterday”.

NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish said the union remained committed to finding a path forward, but that the state government had failed to negotiate.

“Our hospitals are in crisis with increasing activity and increasing numbers of nurses and midwives leaving for better pay interstate,” Ms Candish said.

“The public expects their local hospital to be well staffed, but the current wage setting for nurses and midwives means they cannot stay.

“We have genuinely tried to avert this action, but the government has simply failed to demonstrate a willingness to move.”

Thousands of nurses walked of the job earlier this month across Sydney and regional NSW demanding better pay and in defiance of an order not to do so.

The Industrial Relations Commission had ordered the union to call off the strike amid ongoing negotiations with the NSW government.

The state government earlier offered a three-year 10.5 per cent pay rise to NSW public sector workers, which would have included nurses.

The union has for more than a year been calling on Premier Chris Minns to implement a 15 per cent pay rise for NSW nurses who it says are the lowest paid in Australia.

Speaking on the recent strike, the Premier told 2GB radio a 15 per cent pay rise would cost as much as $6.5 billion – “more than we spend the entire police force”.

“I think police, teachers, corrections officers, paramedics would rightly knock on my door the next day and say we want 15 per cent as well,” the Premier said.

Ms Candish said NSW’s nurses and midwives were leaving for better wages and conditions in Queensland and Victoria, where wages are between 10 and 22 per cent higher.

“It’s clear when two major public sector unions are undertaking industrial action, that we have a government that is incapable of dealing with the issues at hand,” she said.

NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary Michael Whaites added that the state government had acknowledged pay gaps were driving a “recruitment and retention crisis”.

“But it is now clear that after four months of negotiation they are yet to do any work towards putting an improved offer to our members,” Mr Whaites said.

“This government is failing to listen to its largest female-dominated workforce, instead them to sit down and be quiet and continue to pay 2024 bills on 2008 wages.”