Working families in NSW deserve and expect better from a Labor government.

The Minns government’s proposed changes to the workers compensation scheme will put nurses and midwives at greater risk of harm.

Under the proposal, nurses, midwives and carers would automatically be denied access to workers compensation for psychological injuries arising from excessive workloads.

Workers who were bullied or sexually harassed at work would have to prove it in court before being eligible for workers compensation, and the injury threshold to continue receiving payments would double to 30 per cent.

This proposal will disproportionately impact the health workforce. Research shows nurses, midwives and carers make up the largest cohort of workers with psychological injury claims. It found a staggering 150 per cent increase in the number of psychological injury claims by nurses and midwives over a nine-year period.

The government intends to make it harder for nurses and midwives to access support, by excluding work pressure as a cause of psychological trauma. This is extremely alarming as we know excessive workloads and staffing pressures are leading to burnout and poor mental health.

The health system has been like a pressure cooker in recent years as the nursing and midwifery workforce has been overwhelmed by unprecedented demand and chronic understaffing, all coming off the back of a global pandemic.

It should surprise no one that this work environment is prone to hostility and a culture of bullying.

We recognise workers compensation needs reform but making it almost impossible for workers to access compensation after sustaining a psychological injury at work is not the way forward.

Labor pledged to stand by injured workers at the state election. It is unconscionable to backtrack on that pledge and go down the path of inflicting cruelty on its essential workers.

Nurses and midwives in NSW deserve and expect better than that from a Labor government.

MORE EVIDENCE OF A PHS CRISIS

The government shouldn’t need any more evidence that the NSW Public Health System is under severe stress after the recent report by the Special Commission of Inquiry into Healthcare Funding.

The report found that the NSW healthcare system is underfunded and overstretched. Ominously it predicts that the system risks being overwhelmed by an avalanche of aging and chronically ill patients.

In the report Commissioner Richard Beasley made strong and pertinent observations on the critical state of the health workforce due to a “collapse of workforce planning” which had hit regional and rural areas hardest (see our series on the PHS crisis on pages 12-19).

The commissioner noted NSW Health staff had not had a significant pay rise for more than a decade and suffered from high levels of burnout.

“Workforce stress, fatigue, and burnout are serious issues, and particularly so in a public health system. It is a fact, that many (workers in the NSW Health system) no longer share income parity with their counterparts in other states.”

The NSWNMA has repeatedly raised these issues in public and in our discussions with the government. The NSW health system is not fit for purpose, workforce issues are central to the problem, and renumeration is key to recruitment and retention.

Now we have an independent, objective analysis from an expert appointed by the government itself that concurs with ours.

Fixing our treasured public health system should be the highest of priorities for any Labor government. It is what working families in this state expect and deserve from the Minns government that they elected to office.

RAMSAY MEMBERS SHOW HOW

A word of congratulations to our members at Ramsay who have just achieved a 16 per cent pay increase after several years of strong campaigning.

Ramsay members participated in more than 60 strikes including converging on the Ramsay Annual General Meeting last year, 21 bargaining meetings and three successful no-votes.

Their remarkable perseverance and resolve should inspire us all.