SA Health paid parking fee row escalates as healthcare workers set to go on strike

More than 1000 SA Health workers will walk off the job next week in protest at being re-slugged hospital carpark fees.

More than 1000 healthcare support workers will strike next week in protest at being re-slugged hospital car park fees.

SA Health patient services assistants, theatre orderlies, sterilisation technicians, cleaners and food services staff will walk off the job next week.

The United Workers Union on Tuesday wrote to SA Health advising of strike action would affect all major Adelaide hospitals after their concerns were ignored.

Agency bosses had flagged fees would start being deducted from worker pay from this week but this is on hold as authorities try to avert industrial action.

In her letter to SA Health, UWU state secretary Demi Pnevmatikos accused bureaucrats of downplaying the industrial dispute.

“(SA Health) has made a unilateral decision to introduce the fees without any genuine consultation or consideration of the matters … of our members,” she wrote.

“(It) has not taken any measures to mitigate against either change itself or the specific matters raised by UWU.”

The union’s public sector co-ordinator, Paul Blackmore, said the government had dismissed workers’ “real fear and heartache” over the impact of fees of up to $1300 a year.

The Health Services Union has also launched legal action over the fees.

Premier Peter Malinauskas has dismissed calls to scrap paid parking at hospitals after questions from the Opposition – despite launching laws to stop private car park charges – because the revenue was reinvested into the state’s embattled health system.

Liz Kimber, who works at The Lyell McEwin Hospital catering section, isn’t happy with new charges for parking. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

Parking charges vary between hospitals but only a handful offer any free spots.

Liz, a catering worker at Lyell McEwin Hospital, said the cost was “huge”.

“Everything is going up: groceries, bills, petrol, interest rates,” she said. “These are the everyday things we need to pay just to live,” she said.

An SA Health spokeswoman said union talks were ongoing.

“We are seeking to reach a mutual agreement to prevent industrial action going ahead,” she said.

“The health and safety of our patents is our priority and we would ensure appropriate mitigation strategies are in place if required.”

A government spokesman carpark fees were reverting back to pre-pandemic rates after the Major Emergency Declaration ended.

He said billions of extra dollars was being ploughed into the health system to provide extra staff and hospital beds to create more capacity and reduce pressure.

“Most importantly (it will) take the burden off our hardworking hospital staff,” he said.

“We want to support our hardworking health staff by ensuring they have the resources they need to carry out their work, and our record investment in the health system reflects that.”