Thousands of NSW nurses and midwives will strike for up to 24 hours next Tuesday,as the union criticised the state government’s refusal to adopt staff-to-patient ratios and a lack of transparency in its budget announcements.
The NSW government has promised more than 10,000 new full-time health staff in its 2022-23 budget,formally announced yesterday. But despite the staffing announcement being made 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.
In a statement to theHerald issued last week,NSW Health confirmed the 10,000 figure included roles also announced separately – such as 1858 new paramedic roles and additional palliative care positions – and also 1636 positions which were part of a previous four-year commitment to recruit 8300 health frontline staff,which included 5000 nurses and midwives.
“The sheer lack of transparency is palpable. There are widespread staffing deficits right across the state now and there is no guarantee that the government’s ‘health workforce boost’ will be utilised to plug gaps in the staffing rosters now,” said the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association’s acting general secretary,Shaye Candish.
The union’s acting assistant general secretary,Michael Whaites,said the one-off “thank you” payment of $3000 for health staff did not offset a “real pay cut under the new 3 per cent wages policy”,and members were not impressed.
“There are many who helped this state in its time of need that will not get this payment,those who burnt out and left,those in the private and aged care sectors. Those members are rightly feeling undervalued.”
More than 70 of the roughly 200 branches of the union will stop work for periods ranging from two hours to 24 hours next Tuesday,June 28,with ballots still being counted. An additional 16 branches also voted to undertake industrial action,but decided they could not “due to severe staffing shortages and a commitment to life-preserving care”.
In Sydney,the strike at Liverpool and Bankstown hospitals will last 24 hours. At Westmead,Blacktown,Campbelltown,and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital nurses and midwives will stop work for 12 hours.
Yesterday,the state’s public and Catholic school teachers on June 30.