Health care workers will take to the streets in NSW to increase pressure on the state government over pay rises and staffing levels.
The Health Services Union has made repeated attempts to begin negotiations over a productivity-based pay rise, though reports that these calls have gone unanswered.
Dolly Borg, who is a ward assistant at a Sydney Hospital, is striking alongside the thousands of healthcare professionals across the state today.
“We’re not in a third world country,” Ms Borg told the Today Show on Thursday morning. “We’re in Australia.”
“We work right through the whole pandemic. Didn‘t argue. Didn’t say a word. And for what we get paid it’s not worth it.”
Paramedics have joined the mass demonstration of health care staff with a one-hour strike from 7am.
From 10am to 2pm, hospital cleaning, catering, security and administrative staff will walk out of major metropolitan hospitals for four hours.
Regional workers will strike for just two hours from 10am.
This is the third strike in two months for hospital staff after more than a decade of avoiding industrial action.
Last Thursday, 7300 nurses and midwives executed similar industrial action demanding a 4.75 per cent pay rise and nurse-to-patient ratios.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has proposed a 2.5 per cent wage increase for health workers, in line with the maximum wage increase for government staff.
“A 2.5 per cent pay increase annually over this period of time has far exceeded private sector wage growth. That’s a fact,” Mr Perrottet told reporters on Wednesday.
He added that NSW along with Queensland were the only states with a 2.5 per cent public sector pay rise.
“Whether you’re a nurse, whether you’re a teacher, whether you’re a paramedic, I want to make sure that our public servants have the best pay possible”, he said.
The HSU argues that will not cover rising inflation and is demanding the government offer a 5.5 per cent pay rise.
“We are the lowest income workers in the public health system,” Ms Borg said.
“I don’t have money to buy petrol. I don’t have money to buy a bus ticket. 2.5 is not enough”
“How are we going to afford to feed the kids? It‘s all right for the government to say sorry. Sorry’sxjmtzyw not enough.”
