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Thousands of nurses to defy eleventh-hour order to halt strike

By Lucy Carroll and Lucy Cormack

Thousands of nurses across NSW will push ahead with their first mass walk out in almost a decade on Tuesday, defying orders from the NSW Industrial Relations Commission to call off the planned strike.

Nurses and midwives at some of Sydney’s biggest hospitals, including Royal North Shore and Royal Prince Alfred, will strike for 24 hours after crisis talks between unions and Health Minister Brad Hazzard failed to reach a breakthrough on Monday.

The strike action, the first of its kind since 2013, will intensify pressure on the health system and could lead to delays and disruption for patients, however staff will remain at public hospitals to provide life-preserving care.

Nurses and midwives are set to strike on Tuesday over pay and working conditions.

Nurses and midwives are set to strike on Tuesday over pay and working conditions.Credit: Rhett Wyman

The walk out marks a stalemate in the negotiations to resolve a decade-long dispute over pay and staffing levels that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Union officials say the strike will proceed despite orders from the Industrial Relations Commission to halt the action, following submissions from NSW Health citing concerns over safe staffing levels and the risk the strike posed to “public health and safety.“

Under the orders the union must immediately cease organising and refrain from taking any form of industrial action and must not authorise or encourage its members to organise action, effective until March 14.

In a statement late Monday a NSW Health spokesman said any strike action would cause disruptions and delays to health services throughout the state.

“NSW Health urges the union to comply with the orders handed down by the IRC,” he said.

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NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association general secretary Brett Holmes said the union was informing members on Monday evening about the continuing statewide industrial action.

“The strike and rallies will go ahead, as we are unable to comply with the orders,” he said.

A failure to adhere to orders made in the IRC can result in a financial penalty, which is usually paid by the union.

Following Monday’s negotiations with Mr Hazzard, Mr Holmes said he was unable to give nurses “any real concrete hope that they will see a change in the position of government.”

Demands from the sector include mandated nurse-to-patient ratios and a pay rise above 2.5 per cent to recognise the burden placed on nurses throughout the pandemic with staff shortages and infection risks to nurses and vulnerable patients.

Premier Dominic Perrottet earlier on Monday said Mr Hazzard was unlikely to reach a resolution with union officials in time to avert the strike.

“Where we can provide greater support, we will,” he said. “And I look forward to hopefully reaching a resolution. Do I expect that to occur by Tuesday? No, but that doesn’t mean that we stop working”.

Tuesday’s strike follows a ballot by the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association in which the majority of 200 branches endorsed industrial action. While more than 13,000 nurses voted in support of the action, many will not strike as part of a commitment to ensure minimum staffing levels.

President of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association O’Bray Smith said nurses were exhausted from the working conditions triggered by the Delta and Omicron outbreaks.

“Nurses are working back to back double shifts in full PPE. For too long our pleas for staff to patient ratios have been ignored, and we’ve seen patient care decline,” Ms Smith said. “We have the government telling people the system is robust, and it is coping. But healthcare workers have signed a code of conduct that means we can’t talk to media.”

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Ms Smith said a mandated ratio of one nurse to four patients was required to ensure a high standard of patient care.

“We do have this in some hospitals but certainly not across rural and regional hospitals. Omicron put even more pressure on ratios, with nurses off sick wards would be operating with less than fifty percent of normal staff levels.”

“Omicron saw our admissions go through the roof. We just didn’t have the beds to look after that many patients.”

During the latest wave the NSW health system has struggled with thousands of healthcare workers off sick or self-isolating, directives to cut isolation periods for health staff and trying to keep the virus out of hospitals.

NSW Labor leader Chris Minns said a key message out of the weekend’s byelections was that the Premier needed to listen to frontline health workers, in particular nurses.

Mr Minns said Mr Perrottet needed to sit down with representatives and speak about what they have gone through throughout the pandemic.

“If you look at how expensive it is to live in NSW and Sydney inflation is at record levels, yet pay has effectively remained the same and last year the government gave [nurses] a pay cut in real terms,” he said.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns said the Perrottet government needed to listen to nurses about their pay concerns.

NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns said the Perrottet government needed to listen to nurses about their pay concerns. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The strike comes as NSW Health secretary Elizabeth Koff announced her resignation after six years as head of the agency.

A spokesperson for Mr Hazzard said the department was “considering the appropriate process to ensure a smooth transition and is very aware there are already immensely qualified professionals within NSW Health.”

The stoppage will be staggered across Tuesday morning, with nurses and midwives at a dozen NSW hospitals striking for 24 hours.

Multiple hospitals in Hunter New England area will stage a one-day strike from 7am Tuesday morning and twelve hour walk outs will run at Wollongong Hospital, Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Hornsby Hospital.

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Original URL: https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/nsw/thousands-of-nurses-to-defy-eleventh-hour-order-to-halt-strike-20220214-p59wak.html