Doctors offered half the rise given to nurses — and they’re not happy

Specialist doctors are less than impressed at a 1.5 per cent pay offer – with some saying ambos and nurses received more because their unions backed Labor in the last election.

Furious medical specialists say they are victims of “payback” with a paltry 1.5 per cent pay offer compared to generous deals handed to nurses and ambulance officers who campaigned aggressively for Labor during the state election.

Their union says it appears the government “does not value or respect doctors as much as other public health professionals”.

Nurses have just won a deal including annual 3 per cent increases, two $1500 cash payments, $2.50 daily carparking and free public transport.

Shortly after the election, ambulance officers were granted an annual pay increase of 2.5 per cent backdated to the expiry of the last enterprise agreement in 2018.

In contrast, the doctors’ union has just received a 1.5 per cent pay offer for visiting medical specialists, and the same for clinical academics. Inflation is running at 6.1 per cent.

Paramedics Ashleigh Frier and Sian Wanstall with a Labor poster at a polling booth during the state election. Picture: Twitter

Most public sector doctors received a 1.5 per cent deal in February but visiting specialists and clinical academics are on separate agreements.

Specialists have told The Advertiser the deal “sends a clear message that unions which run ads telling people how to vote are well paid, unions that merely advocate for members and the public are not”.

One specialist described it as “payback”.

The SA Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) noted the current Visiting Medical Specialist Enterprise Agreement expired 15 months ago and the new offer is 1.5 per cent over three years.

“On October 12 – the same day as SASMOA received the offer for the VMS – the nurses and midwives were offered 3 per cent plus two one-off payments of $1500 over the next two years,” a SASMOA bulletin to members states.

“It seems the new State Government, in our view and given this offer, does not currently value or respect doctors as much as other public health professionals, and offers such as above are counter-productive to retaining or recruiting medical staff.”

SA Health chief executive Dr Robyn Lawrence sent out a Chief Executive Update advertising the offer made to nurses and midwives. No such update has been circulated regarding the offer to Visiting Medical Specialists.

As well as chalking protest signs on ambulances, the ambulance union spent around $400,000 in its election campaign including the confronting TV and social media video, SA is Dying for More Ambos.

The ad’s creators have boasted of its success saying: “the Marshall Government was removed from office by South Australian voters, with one of the major reasons being its management of the ambulance service”.

‘Ash the Ambo’ appeared in a Labor Party advertisement with the ambulance officer imploring the public to vote Labor because “lives are at risk and Steven Marshall isn’t doing enough”.

Ambulance paramedic Ashleigh Frier, who appears in Labor Party, campaign material. KEMP

The ad was later ruled “inaccurate and misleading” by Electoral Commissioner Mick Sherry.

On the same day 114 people were waiting for an inpatient bed this morning, the majority being from CALHN, ANMF (SA Branch) members and nurses rallied outside the RAH to protest the Marshall Government’s lack of action on health.#VoteforHealth#Southaustralia#ANMFSA#nursespic.twitter.com/z9hW26nUV4

— Nurses/Midwives SA (@ANMFSA) March 18, 2022

The nurses’ union campaigned against the Marshall government claiming a “lack of action” on health.

It also commissioned a video, Help Stop the Squeeze, likening the health system to a patient needing intensive care and saying “the community is now at risk, it’s time for urgent action”.

Beds not basketballs, Staff not stadiums. State Labor Leader @PMalinauskasMP committed to employing 300 extra nurses & legislate staff ratios for public hospitals following a pledge to scrap @marshall_steven $662m inner-city basketball stadium and instead invest money in health. pic.twitter.com/zgFnZkJ85G

— Nurses/Midwives SA (@ANMFSA) February 22, 2022

A government spokesman noted most public sector doctors are covered by the Salaried Medical Officers agreement, compared to a “relatively small number covered by the clinical academics and visiting medical specialists agreements.”

“There has been a longstanding industrial practice that wage outcomes in the Salaried Medical Officers agreement are simply flowed onto the other two agreements,” he said.

“The Salaried Medical Officers agreement was approved in February 2022 and provided for annual wage rises of 1.5 per cent.

“The Government is offering to flow on those wage rises consistent with longstanding industrial practice.”

State Labor has committed $331 million to health, pledging 300 new hospital beds including 98 for mental health, in a move to slash the strain on emergency departments and end ramping.
Learn more here:https://t.co/AcMovEOp8a

— Nurses/Midwives SA (@ANMFSA) February 21, 2022