NSW Ramsay Health Care nurses sick over CEO’s pay and disparity with Queensland colleagues

Ramsay Health Care’s CEO earned over $2 million last year, but fed up Mid-North Coast nurses and midwives say they can’t even get a $2 pay rise. Here’s why they will no longer stand for it.

Ramsay Health Care nurses rally for better pay and staff ratios on 26 September 2024 at the corner of the Coffs Harbour Pacific Highway and Bray St.

NSW nurses and midwives have had enough – and it’s not just those in the public health sector.

Ramsay Health Care nurses and midwives from Baringa Private Hospital and Port Macquarie Private Hospital joined statewide strike action in Coffs Harbour on Thursday, taking aim at its CEO for what they say is an outrageous salary in contrast to their take-home pay.

Members of the Nursing and Midwives Association NSW (NSWNMA) from 14 NSW hospitals took part in the protected industrial action for better pay and staff to patient ratios.

Thursday is the latest in a long line of protests which have taken place in both northern NSW and on the Mid-North Coast in recent months.

After 18 months of negotiations with Ramsay Health Care, NSWNMA members are steadfast in their commitment to fight for better conditions.

Baringa Private Hospital NSWNMA branch secretary Alison Bradshaw said she was fed up with “chronic underpayments of nurses that don’t even match their Queensland counterparts”.

Ramsay Healthcare nurses rally on the Coffs Harbour Pacific Highway calling for better pay and conditions.

“Our colleagues in Queensland who are also employed by the exact same multimillion-dollar company are paid 14 per cent more than we are for doing the same job in a different state,” Ms Bradshaw said.

“Ramsay’s philosophy is people caring for people — well they’re not.

“They’re people caring for profits and we are the ones trying to care for people.”

Ramsay Healthcare nurses stop work rally on the Coffs Harbour Pacific Highway 26 September 2024.

Ms Bradshaw said nurses kept people alive and yet were “so undervalued”.

“Why are we undervalued? Because we’re mostly women and we’re just expected to keep on keeping on. Well – we have bills to pay too,” she said.

Among her colleagues are nurses facing unaffordable rent increases. One cannot even afford a $30 rent increase.

One placard at the strike on Thursday read “I’m sick of eating two minute noodles”.

Ramsay Health Care Baringa Private Hospital nurse Jude Bryant rallies in Coffs Harbour 26 September 2024.

Ms Bradshaw criticised Ramsay Health Care CEO Craig McNally’s high earnings.

“If he just took a minor pay cut, Ramsay Health Care could afford to increase our wages,” she said.

A spokesman from Ramsay Health Care said the CEO’s base annual salary in 2023 was $2.1 million. The group’s net profit of all global entities was $272 million last financial year.

“It’s so crazy I could vomit,” Ms Bradshaw said of the figures.

Ramsay Health Care said they were still in negotiations with the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association to secure a new enterprise agreement but “needs to balance (pay increases) with the ongoing sustainability of the company”.

“Our proposed pay increase includes an above inflation increase of six per cent in 2025,” the spokesman said.

“It is disappointing that many patients have had their surgeries cancelled today at our NSW hospitals as a result of some nursing staff taking protected industrial action.”

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Originally published as NSW Ramsay Health Care nurses sick over CEO’s pay and disparity with Queensland colleagues