December 3, 2020

Member Stories

The government’s “little trinket” is insulting

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Debbie Ross, Branch Secretary of the Sydney Hospital, Sydney Eye Hospital branch, shares her thoughts on the NSW Government’s wages policy.

“The initial reaction from staff to the 0.3 per cent pay increase at our site is that they were gutted. They felt there was no respect for the work that had been done during COVID. The government announced the agreed 2.5 per cent increase wouldn’t be passed on even after the police commissioner was given a wage increase of $87,000.

“A lot of nursing staff are now their family’s only breadwinner after their spouse lost their job because of COVID, so they were relying on that 2.5 per cent to come through. It would have been a glimmer on the horizon.

“Now the government is telling us they will provide free tickets to frontline workers to attend the New Year’s Eve fireworks display. But there are staff who will have to work on New Year’s Eve, and others who won’t be interested in attending a function where social distancing can’t be guaranteed. It is about giving a little trinket. And it’s highly doubtful you’re going to make a trip if you are in a regional area.

“I’ve spent more money travelling to and from work during COVID. Instead of catching public transport to work, I am driving my car because I just don’t feel safe going on public transport now, when train carriages are very empty after hours.

“Early in the pandemic I also felt ostracised when I wore my uniform outside work, and lots of nurses who were wearing uniforms were being accosted.

“Some people weren’t wanting to tell people where they worked because of the anxiety in the community when the virus first hit.

“Our branch has organised a rally outside Parliament House and we did a radio interview. On 16 November, we attended a rally with public sector unions, to protest under the Tree of Knowledge in the Domain.

“Nurses were feeling really angry. There was a heightened feeling of a lack of respect for and acknowledgement of the work we’ve done; particularly fire fighters and health workers who lost their homes in the bushfires and still went in to look after people during the fires.

“At no stage did anyone say ‘We are not going to look after patients’.

“We still did it even though we were scared. Now we hear we are only going to get a 1.5 per cent increase in the future. It will affect our ability to pay off homes and save for retirement.

“At the end of the day, they had the money to pay the increase, but they chose not to. It’s an absolute slap in the face.”

Give honour where honour is due

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Suzie Melchior, branch Secretary of the Ballina Hospital Branch and RN in Emergency, writes of her thoughts on the NSW Government’s wages policy.

My first thought when I heard the rumours going around that they might not honour the opportunity for us to achieve a pay rise was that I felt insulted.

It’s not even about the pandemic; it is about the role we play in our communities and giving honour where honour is due. As Australians, we congratulate people and pat them on the back, and the only way the state government can do that is by honouring the pay increase to be in line with inflation and increased costs of living.

Right at the beginning when we heard that we would have to go to arbitration, I spoke to reporter Joanne Shoebridge on ABC North Coast Radio one morning, and the Northern Star made us their second-last front page spread before they finished. Back then, no-one had heard that nurses and teachers who had been through one of the most stressful years of their lives weren’t going to get a pay rise.

In the first six months of this year, there was a sense of uncertainty. 
My own husband had to go back to his first trade as a baker for four and a half months during the period when his regular employer reduced his days from five to three.

We’re just one example of many. I feel embarrassed talking about not getting a pay rise when people have lost all their income, and campaigning for a pay rise when I know there are local cafes and musicians who have had no income and had to line up in the job queue.

That is a situation I didn’t expect to be in, but our community supports one another, and I was making sure that I put my money where my mouth is as one of the first to line up at local cafes when they opened.

The farcical thing is that we are now going to get gift cards to spend $25 to go out. If the government just honoured the pay rise, they could start to talk about the impact they could have on the economy.

We are a huge tourist area around Ballina, Byron Bay and the North Coast. Even though COVID wasn’t an immediate threat for us, as far as having local cases, we’ve been as busy as we’ve ever been at the Ballina Hospital and in emergency.”

You need compassion to be a nurse. A premier, apparently, does not

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Enrolled Nurse Robyn Mason shares her disgust at Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s wage cuts against nurses and midwives.

Shame on you, Premier!

During this pandemic, nurses and other frontline workers have put their physical, mental and financial wellbeing on the line.

You pay lip service to us and thank us for our contribution, then reward us by cutting our promised wage rise, and freezing future wage rises.

You represent everything that is wrong with this country! It is the same old story: the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Why don’t you and your fellow politicians take a pay cut and save the country some money?

You should climb down from your ivory tower and walk a mile in our shoes.

You wouldn’t last one day as a nurse. You don’t have the compassion and dedication that is needed.

You will never get my vote!

The government doesn’t appreciate our sacrifices

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CNC Raelene Costello shares her dismay at the NSW Government’s wage freeze policy.

As a nurse, you just cannot walk out at finishing time like you can in a lot of other professions.

What happens when there are no staff to hand over to?

Who will care for your loved one who may be coming into hospital distressed or suicidal?

Yes, we do mandatory overtime. This becomes a requirement, rather than an option, as you cannot leave a distressed or suicidal person. We can’t ask them to come back tomorrow as they may not be alive, so we stay to make sure they are safe.

We are very short of qualified mental health nurses, so it is up to the team to fill the extra shifts. And yet, I cannot believe that we have been offered just 0.3 per cent this year.

This makes me feel like we are not appreciated by the government for all we do for our communities.

So, I ask our premier: if it was your loved one who was suicidal, wouldn’t you want a qualified clinician assessing them? Because I hope you appreciate what we do to make sure your loved one is safe.

 

Let’s not give up

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Nurse Elizabeth McCall from Byron Central Branch calls on nurses and midwives not to give give up on their fight for fairer wages and conditions.

I have noticed there continues to be comments from members (not many, but they’re out there) asking what “the union” is doing about various issues, particularly regarding the wage freeze at the moment. I think it’s timely to remind everyone that we are all “the union”.

Yes, we have elected leaders and a body of paid employees working for us, tirelessly, I might add. However, the fact remains that the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association is just that – all of us. Historically, unions came about to improve the conditions of workers. This remains the case today. It needs everyone one of us to be active, out in our workplaces and communities, raising consciousness about the issues important to us – for example, nurse/midwife-to-patient ratios and fair rates of pay. The definitions of a union are:

  • The action of joining together or the fact of being joined together, especially in a political context.
  • A society or association formed by people with a common interest or purpose.

Both these definitions apply to us all. We need everyone committed and active to make sure the NSW government does not continue its current disrespectful behaviours towards our professions.

Now is not the time to give up. To do so is to play into the NSW government’s end game – that we’ll do just that: give up. They know how valuable we are and this year, like no other, has shown them that they can’t do without us.

Jo Hall: our November nurse of the month

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Judith Mullins nominated her friend and colleague Jo Hall as our November nurse of the month.

Jo has worked tirelessly for this community for eleven years. Her outstanding work has gone unrecognised.

She started the Deadly Sista Girls as part of a fitness program and led the first group to run City 2 Surf. She has improved the diabetic compliance of her community to levels far beyond any other Aboriginal Health Centre. She has worked with her colleagues to ensure that the majority of the children in her community are vaccinated.

This is just a small snapshot of the work Jo does. While she is not Indigenous herself, she has gained the respect of the community for her dedication. Over the past two and a half years she has continued to work while firstly caring for her terminally ill mother, whom she nursed at home until her death. She is now caring for her father who is also unwell.

I am in awe of this amazing woman. Her strength to carry on no matter how tough life gets is phenomenal. She constantly puts others before herself. I would love to see her recognised as she gives so much and never asks for anything in return.