Nurses and midwives from across the state have staged a two hour, own-time picket outside the NSW parliament to send the Minns government a message that they aren’t going away until a decent pay rise is delivered.
In the week of Budget Estimates, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) members are demanding the NSW government direct new money into health to ensure nurses and midwives get fair and equal pay with other states.
NSWNMA General Secretary, Shaye Candish, said the NSW gender pay gap had widened because the government had chosen to disrespect and ignore its largest female-dominated workforce.
‘The NSW gender pay gap is the highest it has been in more than a decade, sitting at 7.2 per cent. Nurses and midwives make up the largest proportion of female workers in the state’s public sector, so if the government was serious about driving the gender pay gap down, it would deliver a proper pay rise. Instead, it’s showing it doesn’t value us,’ said Ms Candish.
Delay causing loss of talent and experience
‘Nurses and midwives shouldn’t have to wait until late 2025 for a decision on our 2024 pay and conditions claim in the Industrial Relations Commission,’ said Shaye Candish. ‘The longer this process takes, the more nurses and midwives we will lose to other states who value them with competitive wages.
‘The government hasn’t moved from its original application and continues to think that 3 per cent is enough to fix the gender pay gap and the staffing crisis in NSW.
‘The government could put an end to this dispute right now by sitting down and negotiating a fair outcome with us,’ she said.
The NSWNMA is also calling on the Minns government to direct millions of dollars in new federal health funding towards nurses and midwives’ wages.
1 Comment
Karma. The “health” industry is hijacked by the pharmaceutical industry and its synthesised chemicals when plant-based medicine in existence for countless millennia before Rockefeller is all one needs to heal themselves. The very fact sick people need to pay to stay alive says everything about the rotten stench of the secular age and capitalism. No sympathy for people who profit from other’s illness.