NSW Health’s Clinical Resource Unit (CRU) and agency staff working in rural and remote hospitals provide an essential service. NSW Health employs CRU and agency staff as casuals under the public health system award, and as such, they are not entitled to overtime.

As these rural and remote sites are critically short of nurses and midwives, CRU and agency staff are regularly asked to work in excess of 76 hours a fortnight, yet NSW Health is unable to pay overtime. This anomaly needs to be corrected.

Interstate jurisdictions employ agency staff on contracts and classify those as full time and pay overtime. The employment as casuals in NSW public hospitals needs to change to ensure CRU and agency staff are paid appropriately, and rural and remote sites are staffed accordingly.

Michael Clarke, RN