After pledging to increase pay packets by $3500, the NSW government has promised that low-paid health employees may expect a large increase in their remuneration.
The NSW health minister and the Health Services Union reached an agreement on Friday morning as the union threatened to take strike action at all of the state’s hospitals the following week.
Instead of a percentage rise, the government’s proposal to raise the base pay of health professionals by $3500 would benefit the sector’s lowest-paid employees the most.
The agreement covers employees ranging from cleaners to hospital clerks, paramedics, and allied health professionals but does not extend to doctors and nurses.
Gerard Hayes, the state secretary for the HSU, claimed he was pleading with members who made between $150,000 and $150,000 annually to “do me a favor.”
“Help me take care of these struggling individuals… I’m appealing to our membership for mercy,” he stated.
All public sector employees had been given a 4% rise, retroactive to July 1.
Recently, however, it became possible to modify the offer on a sector-by-sector basis as long as the price remained the same.
On Monday, HSU members will decide whether to accept the $3500 offer and pursue industrial action.
More than 90,000 healthcare employees who are not represented by doctor or nurse unions are represented by the union.
According to Hayes, it was a remarkable day for the health care professionals making around $52,000 annually.
“These are the cleaners who kept COVID out of hospitals, these are the security officers who get beat up every day,” he claimed.
Gerard Hayes, state secretary of the HSU, and Daniel Mookhey, treasurer of NSW, have argued about wage raises.
The conflict intensified last week when HSU delegates heckled Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, the man behind the government’s 4% offer, when he spoke to the union’s annual conference.
According to the government, the health department had plans in place to handle industrial action.
This week, the treasurer started weaning the health department off of a scheme that saw half of the tax savings made by employees through salary sacrifice go to the government.
It pledged to restore 60% of the workers’ tax revenue on Friday.
Union members’ personal tax savings generate $90 million in revenue for the government each year, while the 60% offer puts $10 back into employees’ bank accounts each week.
It’s morally reprehensible, added Hayes, not just from an industrial one.
The union leader has set a strict deadline of three years to put an end to the tax grab completely and wants the government to pledge to returning at least 70% of workers’ tax benefits.
According to the state opposition, Labor’s “huge” compensation promises made in the run-up to the March election were the cause of the problems between the administration and health professionals.
