Nurses took to the streets after ‘insulting’ pay offer. Next stop, court

The protracted pay dispute between the NSW government and the state’s 50,000 nurses and midwives is set to head to arbitration after a statewide strike led to hundreds of planned surgery cancellations and brought the public health system to a standstill.

Nurses and midwives marched through Sydney’s CBD in their thousands on Wednesday for the third time in as many months after failing to reach a deal during four weeks of negotiations at the Industrial Relations Commission.

Nurses, furious at the state government’s latest pay offer, protest outside the NSW parliament in Sydney on Wednesday.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

Health Minister Ryan Park said he was disappointed the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) had decided to strike again, and the government would express its desire to move to formal arbitration when both parties next appear before the commission in 12 days.

“I want this issue resolved for nurses and midwives, and I want the service to go back to functioning as the best health service in the world,” he said.

Fury over the government’s approach to bargaining with the state’s nurses boiled over on Monday afternoon after the police union announced it had reached a wages deal of up to 40 per cent over four years.

Nurses are demanding a 15 per cent single-year pay rise. The government has said their total wage package would cost NSW taxpayers more than $6 billion.

NSWNMA general secretary Shaye Candish leading Wednesday’s rally. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone

On Wednesday, Park revealed the union had rejected numerous offers during bargaining, including boosting the pay of first- and second-year nurses by 16 per cent, and spreading the 15 per cent pay rise over three years.

But he echoed Premier Chris Minns’ warning on Tuesday that increasing the pay offer would force the government to delay its proposed rollout of nurse-to-patient ratios, a key union demand that Labor committed to at the last state election.

“What we tried to do was look at ways in which we could expand the amount available but slow down some of the other reforms that we were implementing,” Park said.

Speaking on the sidelines of Wednesday’s rally, NSWNMA general secretary Shaye Candish said the offer to raise wages at the expense of ratios was insulting and had not been put to members for a formal vote.

“Our members are irate,” she said. “What other occupation is required to pay for the resources to do their job out of their own pocket?”

Labor has repeatedly blamed the previous Coalition government’s wage cap for driving down nurses’ real wages. Park said he understood nurses and midwives were struggling with the cost of living, but it was “not possible” to make up the gap in a single year.

Festus Yeung, a nurse at the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick, said he began his career 24 years ago as one of the highest-paid nurses in Australia but now was one of the lowest.

“I think what the NSW government has done is very unjust,” Yeung said. “They’ve promised us pay rises [to get] elected. Now they’re backing out on their promises.”

About 700 planned surgeries were cancelled or postponed on Wednesday, Park said.

Rail delays loom

Meanwhile, the government has bowed to union demands to run suburban trains 24 hours a day from Thursday to Saturday. Rail workers had threatened to strike if trains did not operate around the clock amid protracted negotiations over a new pay deal.

Another work ban involves a gradual reduction in kilometres that crews will work on suburban and intercity trains from this Thursday.

Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the bans would make it more difficult to run services on the city’s rail network, and the demands to run trains around the clock would cost taxpayers an extra $1.5 million a week.

“There will be delays and cancellations. We’re asking the unions to lift these bans,” she said.

“While these bans are in place, they’re like a boa constrictor on our train network. They are strangling and making it harder and will eventually squeeze the life out of the network.”

Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland warned of a “progressive degradation” of services over the coming weeks if the bans were not lifted. “We’ll see delays that will really build up and cascade over the coming weeks,” he said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.