NSW paramedics to take industrial action over being paid lowest wages in Australia

One state is paying a difficult job – in which people are often hailed as heroes – less than every other state in Australia.

A paramedic says he’s tired of being called a “hero” even though NSW pays his profession the worst wages in the country while at the same time giving politicians some of the highest salaries.

The comments come as NSW ambos prepare to refuse all patient transports except those whose lives are in danger in a historic union action to protest an effective pay cut.

“You can’t pay your grocery bills with applause,” said Health Services Union vice president and Nambucca Heads paramedic Steve Fraser.

Paramedic and union official Steve Fraser said his colleagues aren’t being valued for the work they do. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Fraser, 59, said his Ambulance NSW job earns him about $1,700 a week after a four decade career.

That salary is $300 higher than most paramedics earn each week, because Mr Fraser earns bonuses for being a specialist intensive care paramedic and for managing an ambulance station.

Even so, it’s less than the $1863.70 that Australian public servants earn on average.

It’s also less than his ambulance colleagues earn in other states and territories.

A NSW paramedic with six years’ experience earns $1456, almost $250 less per week than the equivalent ambo in the ACT where such workers earn the most.

For intensive care paramedics such as Mr Fraser, the pay gap is even starker. Those professionals earn $1,656 per week in NSW, compared with $2281 in the ACT.

Meanwhile, NSW politicians earn competitive wages, with state parliament backbenchers expecting base weekly salaries of $3253, the third highest in the country.

South Australian backbenchers earn one dollar more per week, while Victorian politicians have base weekly salaries of $3,507.

“Being a backbencher must be a very dangerous job,” said HSU secretary Gerard Hayes.

NSW paramedic Steve Fraser, third from the left, on a helicopter mission in the early 1990s. Supplied via NCA NewsWire

“Paramedics are obviously used to turning up to trauma, the ‘bear pit’ must be more traumatic than people think.”

The bear pit is a nickname for the chamber in the NSW parliament where the lower house meets.

According to Mr Fraser, a career as an ambo means long days, physical exhaustion, extreme stress and lots of time spent away from home. For many it also means penny-pinching to make ends meet.

“It’s developed into an expectation that paramedics will go the extra mile for the people they care for,” Mr Fraser said.

“But there seems to be no expectations paramedics will be properly valued. The government doesn’t want to invest in us at all.”

While public service workers in NSW usually have their wages increase by 2.5 per cent per year, the state government slashed that increase to just 0.3 per cent last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

This year, public servants are being offered a 1.5 per cent increase, while consumer prices are expected to rise faster than that.

According to Mr Hayes, the effective pay cut feels like a slap in the face to ambulance officials who have been hailed as heroes along with other first responders during bushfires, floods and the coronavirus pandemic.

Steve Fraser with HSU secretary Gerard Hayes speaking to reporters last week in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

“We’re talking about people doing literal lifesaving work, and they’re just not being recognised for it,” he said.

Thursday’s protest will involve unionised paramedics refusing to respond to any calls other than those triaged as life-threatening emergencies.

It’s a drastic action that the union has never attempted before.

“Paramedics are agonising over this – we haven’t done it before because we don’t want to do it,” Mr Fraser said.

“But this is how desperate we’ve become.”

A spokesman for NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said that while there were positive signs in the economy, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic was still being felt and “we still have a long way to go”.

“Last month the full bench of the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW reaffirmed the government’s plan to prioritise job-creation to keep as many people in jobs as possible as we get our economy back on its feet,” the spokesman said.

“Our paramedics, nurses, doctors and health professionals have done an outstanding job protecting our community and the government thanks them for their extraordinary work.

“The government is focused is on maintaining its first-class health response, which has allowed NSW to lead the nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic.”