More than 70 of the roughly 180 public sector branches of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association voted to stop work for periods ranging from two hours to 24 hours on June 28,after ballots were held on Wednesday.
The strike at Liverpool and Bankstown hospitals will last 24 hours. At Westmead and Westmead Children’s,Blacktown,Campbelltown,and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital nurses and midwives will stop work for 12 hours.
A union spokesperson said most other hospital branches had opted to walk off the job for four hours.
Sixteen branches also voted to undertake industrial action,but decided they could not “due to severe staffing shortages and a commitment to life-preserving care”.
All members of the union,including those who did not opt in to the strike,will attend a meeting live-streamed from Sydney Town Hall on Tuesday afternoon to discuss demands.
The state government promised. Despite the staffing announcement being made weeks before Tuesday’s formal confirmation,the union said it was still unable to obtain clarity on how many new nurses and midwives were included in that figure,and where they would be stationed.
In a statement to theHerald issued last week,NSW Health confirmed the figure included roles announced separately – such as 1858 new paramedic roles and additional palliative care positions – as well as 1,636 positions which were part of a previous four-year commitment to recruit 8300 health frontline staff,including 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,” NSW Nurses and Midwives Association’s acting general secretary Shaye Candish said.
It will be the,after statewide strikes in February and March. The union,as has occurred in other states.
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.,” he said.
“Those members are rightly feeling undervalued.”
On Tuesday,the state’s public and Catholic school teachers.
with Kate Aubusson