13 May 2020
Nurses in New South Wales were all due to celebrate International Nurses Day this week. Instead, Bega District News reports they have been "slapped in the face" by the NSW Government, which is proposing to deny the frontline health workers their annual pay rise.
Nurses and midwives say the middle of the coronavirus pandemic is hardly the time for the NSW Government to freeze public sector wages, especially with a "second wave" of cases imminent.
In South Australia, nurses and midwives spent International Nurses Day celebrating an in-principle ANMF (SA Branch) win for a 2 per cent wage increase each year for three consecutive years backdated from January 1, 2020 - along with the preservation of existing working conditions, including the retention of a 10-hour night shift, no forced redundancies and no capping of staff levels.
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) general secretary Brett Holmes said nurses were devastated frontline health and other public sector workers face a wage freeze, according to Bega District News, despite the NSW Treasurer claiming to "always put people before numbers".
"It's no surprise our members are upset the government intends to bring on this wage freeze, instead of honouring a modest 2.5 per cent pay increase from July 1," Mr Holmes was quoted on the Bega website.
"While risking their lives to protect our community during the coronavirus pandemic, it's abhorrent to be asking frontline nurses to do more for less."
NSWNMA South East Regional Hospital delegate Diane Lang said she felt "degraded and insulted" by the decision.
"In early April we were lauded as amazing nurses. In fact, they saw us so essential to their COVID-19 plans the government was paying for accommodation if required to keep us safe," she was quoted by Bega.
"For years we have asked for improved working conditions to no avail. For years the government has said you get nothing but a 2.5 per cent increase, take it or leave it."
But now even that increase is under threat.
"Sorry Premier Berejiklian and Health Minister Hazzard, nurses deserve better," Ms Lang said.