Every major public hospital in NSW targeted in stop work campaign over public servant salaries

HOSPITALS will become the new battleground in the union war with the state government over public servant salaries. Every major public hospital is scheduled to grind to a halt.

Westmead Hospital is one of many hospitals where staff will walk off the job on Wednesday. Picture: AAP Image/Keri Megelus

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HOSPITALS will become the new battleground in the union war with the state government over public servant salaries.

Every major public hospital is scheduled to grind to a halt through stop works organised by the 35,000-strong NSW Health Services Union (HSU).

The opening salvo of the campaign will be fired on Wednesday when an estimated 400 junior doctors, paramedics, security guards, caterers and linen launderers from Westmead Hospital walk off the job for up to two hours.

They are protesting the wages cap, introduced by former premier Barry O’Farrell in 2011, which bans public servants seeking a pay rise above 2.5 per cent, unless they can offset the increases with work practice savings.

HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes says lifting the public sector wage cap is affordable and will breathe new life into wages across NSW. Picture: Daniel Aarons

The stop-works are planned at public hospitals throughout NSW, including St Vincent’s Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Liverpool Hospital but the HSU has promised that patient care will not be compromised.

It is an escalation of a campaign that is already a year long and will now also target the Berejiklian government’s most vulnerable marginal seats, doorknocking residents and leaflet dropping.

The HSU’s campaign claims weak wage growth is holding back the economy and the government must lead the way with pay rises before the private sector follows suit.

“One in 10 NSW residents work for the NSW government, making it the country’s biggest employer,” HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes said.

“Lifting the public sector wage cap is affordable and will breathe new life into wages across NSW.”

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Consumer spending has nosedived by $3.4 billion since the introduction of the public servant wage cap, according to modelling by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work commissioned by the HSU.

The HSU accuses the government of “severe austerity measures”, which include asking paramedics to spend $80 of their own money on mandatory Working With Children Checks and forcing catering staff at Bathurst Hospital to seek permission to use the bathroom.

But the government shows no signs of caving in to union demands, arguing public servants already enjoy generous pay rises well above inflation and any more largesse would be fiscally irresponsible.

The union promises patient care will not be compromised. Picture: Robert Barker

“At a time when private sector wage growth is stagnating, public sector wages in NSW are more than half a per cent higher and among the highest in the nation,” a spokesman for Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said.

“The sort of unsustainable wage levels seen under Labor and proposed by the union will mean less money spent by the government to deliver services and infrastructure for our communities.”

The spokesman said pay rises would come at the expense of frontline services and infrastructure including health, education, roads and transport.