October 7, 2024

strike action

Private sector nurses in India win minimum wages and job security after strike

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Nurses in Thrissur, India, have successfully won a minimum daily wage of Rs 1,500 after strike action.

In addition to a wage increase, management have also promised to offer permanent positions to trainees and employees who were previously under contract.

Led by the United Nurses Association (UNA), nurses from 30 private hospitals began the strike on 11 April. Within 24 hours, management of six hospitals conceded to the demands of the UNA, with 23 more agreeing to negotiate with the union the next day. Only one hospital, Koorkencherry Elite Hospital’s management, has not accepted the union’s demands. Displaying the strength and unity of the nurses, the strikes had a 100% participation rate.

The strike was considered a last resort for UNA. After six months of token strikes, observed black days and protests, management still wouldn’t budge.

Hospital management attempted to use the High Court of Kerala to ban the strike, which was denied.

The dispute started due to nurses in private hospitals being paid less than the public system, and wages being further slashed due to the pandemic. The last agreement was from 2017 and due to be negotiated in 2020 ,yet was continuously delayed until now.

Shoby Joseph, state president of UNA said, “while the nurses in the government hospitals are well paid, similar people were paid very low wages. This discrimination needs to be brought to an end. We will hold similar strikes in all the districts in a phased manner to win our rights”.

The UNA plans to continue its campaign for minimum wages in all private hospitals across the state, holding further strikes and other protests in a phased manner.

The UNA also alleged that several corporate hospitals were cutting nurses’ salaries during the pandemic. The organisation aims to end the discrimination and exploitation of nurses and plans to hold similar strikes across the state to ensure equal wages for all nurses.

Another issue raised by the UNA was the extension of contracts and training periods for nurses by hospitals to reduce salary expenses. The organisation has called for the abolition of contract recruitment in the health sector to ensure equal pay for equal work.

Nurses at some hospitals, including Amala, Jubilee Mission, West Fort, Daya, Sun, and Malankara Mission, did not participate in the strike. However, UNA plans to hold further strikes in other districts to ensure that all private hospital nurses in the state receive a minimum wage.

A message of solidarity to UK nurses and midwives

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The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association have sent a letter of support for UK nurses and midwives engaging in strike action on the 15th of December 2022.

Dear Unison, Public and Commercial Services Union, and Royal College of Nursing members, 

On the eve of your historical set of strike actions to secure fair pay and safe staffing levels, we send our heartfelt support and solidarity from the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association in Australia.  

Your courage is acknowledged and admired from afar, and your Australian nursing and midwifery colleagues support every effort being taken across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. 

We hear you; we see you, and we stand with you in fighting for change. Our members have been fighting your fight; a fight for ratios, for more resources and a fight for a pay rise that reflects the work we do and meets the rising cost of living. 

As we know, from taking multiple strike actions across New South Wales this year against an obstinately uncooperative state government, no nurse or midwife ever takes industrial action lightly. It is abhorrent governments continue to disrespect nurses and midwives and take our professions for granted. 

Enough is enough. Stand tall for the safety of both those in your care, your colleagues, and your communities. Patient safety is fundamental to quality healthcare and must be a priority.  

Safe staffing matters, and you deserve fair wages that recognise your contribution and pay the bills. 

 Yours sincerely 

 SHAYE CANDISH 

General Secretary 

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association

On behalf of NSW nurses and midwives

NSW Government ‘silencing’ public sector workers with proposal to increase fines for strikes

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The NSW Government has proposed new regulations that would increase fines for trade unions who take strike action not approved by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission.

The proposal comes after months of failed negotiations between the NSW government and public sector unions like the NSWNMA, leading to numerous strikes and industrial unrest over pay and conditions.

Over the past 12 months, nurses and midwives, along with teachers, bus drivers, cleaners and other public sector workers have gone on strike demanding the government deliver a pay rise that keeps up with inflation and address key safety and understaffing issues across various sectors including health and education.

In response to public sector workers demands, the NSW Finance Minister Damien Tudehope has instead announced increased fines for strike action.

The new fines would now see trade unions fined up to $55,000 for strike action taken in defiance of an IRC ruling and up to $27,500 issued for each day after. While unions who repeatedly breach orders would face fines of up to $110,000.

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association Assistant General Secretary Shaye Candish has called the move by the government a ‘silencing tactic’.

“The government does not want to face the realities of our health system and this silencing tactic is just another attempt to punish nurses and midwives who are speaking out in the name of patient safety.”  Shaye Candish, NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary.

“Teachers, nurses and midwives and the majority of public sector workers are women. Women who have been working tirelessly throughout COVID, caring for our community in the hospital system or teaching our kids under extraordinary circumstances. And these women are fed up with this government telling them to sit down, be quiet and put up with unmanageable workloads and low pay.”  Shaye Candish, NSWNMA Assistant General Secretary.

Under NSW laws, the NSW upper house can vote down any new regulation within 15 parliamentary sitting days. The regulation is expected to be voted on in early August with Labor and the Greens aiming to block the government’s regulation.

They will however need the support of independents or the Shooter Fishers and Farmers to defeat the NSW government’s latest attack on unions.

Unions NSW have mounted a campaign to lobby the crossbench in the NSW upper house, calling on them to reject the government’s regulation. You can find out more about the campaign and sign the petition here.

South Western Sydney nurses and midwives strike for ratios

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​​​Hundreds of nurses and midwives have walked off the job at Liverpool and Campbelltown hospitals, frustrated their ongoing calls for safe staffing have been ignored by the NSW government.

Despite intimidation tactics, including threats of disciplinary action, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) members at both South Western Sydney hospitals voted in favour of the strike actions.

Braving wet weather, around 200 Liverpool Hospital branch members walked out for four hours, striking from 3.30pm until 7.30pm.

Ongoing short staffing issues, excessive overtime and a lack of clinical educators to support nurses prompted members of the NSWNMA Macarthur Branch to support a two-hour stop work action at Campbelltown Hospital, from 3.30pm until 5.30pm.

In the state’s north, members of the NSWNMA Lismore Base Hospital branch also walked off the job today for 15.5 hours (from 3.30pm), in a desperate bid to highlight the need for nurse-to-patient ratios.

NSWNMA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, said today’s snap actions were a sign of the widespread desperate situation nurses and midwives are experiencing.

“Our members never take strike action lightly, in fact, most will have never experienced it in their working lives,” said Mr Holmes.

“The examples they have shared of near misses and poor outcomes for patients are truly shocking. They are working beyond what should be expected of any professional nurse or midwife.

“Members have described critical staffing shortages across their emergency departments, intensive care units, mental health units and maternity services. These nurses and midwives are at breaking point.

“We need mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in our hospitals, just like they have in Queensland and Victoria. The NSW government’s current preferred staffing model is outdated, unsafe and frequently fails to deliver the right number of nurses needed on every shift.”

Yesterday, members at Tweed and Port Macquarie Base hospitals held stop work meetings, while a further 200 nurses and midwives rallied outside Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. On Monday, five hospital beds were closed at Yass. Last week, around 500 nurses and midwives walked off the job or closed beds in public health sites at Belmont, Blue Mountains, Bowral, John Hunter, Shoalhaven, Springwood and Waratah, because of the conditions and pressures they are forced to work under.

To date, the NSW government has refused to negotiate with the NSWNMA on introducing nurse-to-patient ratios.

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