October 30, 2024

Wage freeze

Minister dodges wage freeze questions

by Leave a Comment

The Liberals have shown how little they value the public health service by cancelling a scheduled pay increase for health workers.

During a NSWNMA rally against the wage freeze outside Parliament House in Sydney, nurse Skye Romer spotted health minister, Brad Hazzard, and took the opportunity to introduce herself.

Skye told the minister she had just watched his video thanking nurses and midwives for striving to keep the public safe during COVID-19.

She asked him if he would therefore be opposing his government’s decision to freeze nurses’ wages.

“He didn’t want to answer any of my questions and said it was a matter for Cabinet,” she told The Lamp.

As secretary of the Association’s Prince of Wales Hospital mental health branch, Skye has spoken to many nurses about the wage freeze.

“Almost all of them are outraged,” she said. “Some have said things like, why would we continue to work under extreme pressure for the community while the government continues to slap us in the face?

“In mental health, nurses are frequently spat on, assaulted and abused. Why would we continue to do that work for less money?”

She points out that the state government has not even guaranteed to pay the 2.5 per cent increase next year.

“How will this affect nurses’ earnings over the long term and superannuation payouts on retirement?

“The 2.5 per cent was supposed to keep us in line with cost of living increases, so what will the wage freeze mean for our purchasing power? Especially if you are the only person paying the mortgage?”

An NSWNMA survey of members shows the freeze will initially cost nurses and midwives, on average, $160 in lost wages per month.

“The 2.5 per cent was the result of a government decision in 2011 that saved billions,” Skye said.

“It’s okay for the Premier’s Liberal Party friends to line their pockets with massive wage increases – the rest of us are told to just suck it up.

“Well, we have already sucked it up by going to work during a pandemic – because it’s our job and we care – and this is how we’re thanked.”

In July, federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said the relatively high survival rate of COVID-19 patients in Australia was due to hospitals having ample ICU capacity and surge capacity and “arguably they have the best doctors and nurses and systems in the world”.

However, the wage freeze in NSW shows the state government doesn’t really care about public health, Skye said.

“Liberal politicians should understand that if they end up in hospital and are sick enough, they won’t stay in the private system, they will come across to the public.

“Most people would want their hospital to be funded properly and staff paid properly so they are happy to come to work and do a good job.

“How will that be achieved by cutting nurses’ wages?”

Skye has joined other nurses in handing out leaflets outside the offices of two Liberal MPs.

“Almost every member of the public I’ve spoken to has been extremely supportive of our campaign,” she says.

“A lot of people ask to have their photos taken with us to put on social media.

“They are thankful for the work of nurses and other essential services workers who have helped to keep society functioning through the pandemic, regardless of the dangers.”

Nurses and midwives would lose $56,000 under wage freeze: economist

by Leave a Comment

NSW public sector workers would lose $56,000 from the NSW pay freeze, according to economic evidence presented to the IRC.

Dr Andrew Charlton, who served as Kevin Rudd’s economic adviser during the 2008 global financial crisis, said “freezing public sector salaries is not warranted” in NSW in a report tendered to the IRC.

The report, co-authored with Angela Jackson from Equity Economics, says “the macroeconomic benefits of a pay rise to the 400,000-strong public workforce would substantially outweigh the costs”.

“A 2.5 per cent increase in the average public servant’s income for 2020–21 equates to $2198 in 2020–21, but an increase of $56,150 in future income over the next 20 years.

“A freeze in public sector wages would represent a real cut in incomes for 407,999 employees across the state. This will have a direct impact on the spending by these employees, due to a reduction in disposable income and borrowing capacity.

“This is precisely the opposite direction economic policy needs to be headed to achieve the government’s goal of supporting economic recovery,” it says.

The Equity Economics analysis points out that the current position of the NSW government to cut the real wages of all public sector employees regardless of their role or their level of pay is not consistent with advice given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF recommends any pay freeze:

  • exclude priority areas like health, social workers; security workers; transport, and other employees involved In ensuring the continuation of essential services; and
  • be progressive in its design, with lower paid public sector workers sharing less of the burden.

Masks directive highlights workplace risks for nurses

by Leave a Comment

After five months of raising safety concerns held by members, the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) has welcomed today’s decision by NSW Health instructing all public health workers to wear surgical masks within 1.5 metres of patients.

NSWNMA General Secretary, Brett Holmes, said the union had repeatedly highlighted the workplace risks for thousands of nurses and midwives because of their need to deliver care in close proximity to patients.

“While we welcome the decision to move to an amber alert, this clearly demonstrates our members have been working in much higher risk environments than the health service has been prepared to admit,” said Mr Holmes.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, nurses and midwives have endured ongoing issues with access to adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and, at times, conflicting infection prevention advice.

“An expert risk assessment of the increase in community transmission of COVID-19 has prompted this ‘moderate’ risk warning and we appear to now have an abundant supply of masks for public health workers.

“Mask use is a welcome protection for all public hospital and community health workers and we will continue to pursue NSW Health over the issue of ‘fit testing’ and ‘fit checking’ for P2/N95 masks where required.

“This reinforces the essential work value of nurses and midwives who continue putting their own lives on the line to tackle the pandemic and protect their communities. Meanwhile, we’re in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission begging for their 2.5% standard wage increase.

“All nurses and midwives, at a minimum, deserve to be acknowledged and deserve proper financial recognition for their daily sacrifices.

“It’s an appalling situation, considering public health workers are essential but not valued by this government.”

The NSWNMA is in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission again today, alongside other public sector unions, to oppose the wage freeze and further hearings are scheduled for 30 and 31 July.

Essential but not valued

by Leave a Comment

The Berejiklian government plays a sly hand when it effusively praises nurses for their role in containing COVID-19 while effectively reducing their real wages.

Politicians have a habit of treating health as a sideshow somehow subservient to the main game of economics and the power that flows from that discipline.

This year has exposed the hubris of that worldview. The COVID-19 contagion has devastated economies around the world, including Australia’s, just as we were coming to grips with the consequences of climate change after a summer of apocalyptic bushfires.

The natural world has delivered a massive reality check in 2020 and posited with crystal clarity the centrality of health – of the human population and of the planet.

For nurses and midwives this year started with significant recognition as the World Health Organization declared 2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife.

This is a year in which we should be celebrating the nurses and midwives who dedicate their lives to the health of others.

Instead, it has turned into a time of mourning for the hundreds of nurses and other health workers who have fallen victim to the coronavirus across the world.

AsThe Lamp goes to print, the pandemic shows no signs of abating as infections accelerate worldwide, and with nearly 15,000,000 confirmed cases and more than 600,000 deaths.

Every day of this pandemic nurses have fronted up despite the risks and at great personal sacrifice. Each nurse that has caught COVID-19 is one too many and highlights the danger they face keeping the public safe.

In NSW it is easy to understand then their sadness and anger as their state government targets them to carry, not just the responsibility of saving people’s lives in the world’s worst pandemic since 1913, but also the economic burden in the aftermath of the epidemic.

It is morally disgraceful, callous, and it makes no economic sense.

Economists raise the alarm

Numerous economists have raised the alarm over the government’s public sector wage freeze. Even the Treasury has proffered advice that “reducing public sector wage growth in the short-run would deepen the recession”.

Dr Andrew Charlton, who was a key economic adviser for the Rudd government when it crafted its stimulus package in response to the Global Financial Crisis says the pay freeze is “precisely the opposite direction economic policy needs to be headed to achieve the government’s goal of supporting economic recovery.

This is damning criticism from a widely respected economist with a strong track record in charting recovery from an epic-level financial crisis.

The wage freeze also sits uneasily with the public. Since the freeze was announced our members have engaged tirelessly with their communities. Their message that the wage freeze will adversely impact local businesses and jobs has resonated especially strongly in rural and regional areas still recovering from the hammer blows of drought and fires.

The policy finds few friends in parliament outside of the Liberal Party. A regulation to impose the freeze was disallowed in the NSW Parliament. A majority of the NSW Upper House did not agree with a freeze to public sector wages.

The NSW government also finds itself alone in the Commonwealth with this financial folly.

Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have all committed to wage increases for their nurses and midwives this year and for the following years. Queensland is to delay payment for this year but has promised two increases next year.

The truth is, in NSW, the wage freeze is not a one-off as a consequence of the coronavirus. It sits on a continuum of policy that has been implemented since 2011.

The Liberal government since its election 9 years ago, under several different leaders, has unilaterally capped the wages of nurses and midwives and obstructed improvements to ratios.

It loves to sing the praises of nurses and midwives when it suits it and has done so regularly during the COVID-19 outbreak. But what is clear is the government doesn’t really value their essential work.

Sutherland nurses and midwives rally against heartless wage freeze

by Leave a Comment

Local nurses and midwives from the Sutherland Shire met outside the office of Heathcote MP, Lee Evans, on Monday to seek support in their fight against the public sector wage freeze.

Members from the Sutherland Hospital NSWNMA Branch have gained support from several businesses in the Shire who have signed onto the campaign to stop the wage freeze. Nurses and midwives support these businesses on a daily basis but will be forced to cut their spending if the wage freeze goes ahead.

Mental Health nurse and Shire resident, Skye Romer, said nurses and midwives were insulted that the Berejiklian Government was attempting to freeze their wages, while ignoring their daily sacrifices.

“We’re asking Lee Evans to stand alongside us in our campaign to stop the wage freeze. The Sutherland Shire community is already showing their support for nurses and midwives who have consistently provided safe patient care,” said Ms Romer.

“We’re very grateful for the support from local businesses. They understand how a public sector wage freeze hurts us all.

“A wage freeze is cruel and it will do more harm than good. We’re asking the government to help our community by not freezing our wages.”

Mr Evans did not come out to meet with the nurses and midwives, despite the rally.

Frontline workers to slash spending if wage freeze proceeds

by Leave a Comment

As public sector unions prepare to fight the state government’s proposed wage freeze in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, new data shows nurses and midwives are grappling with a bleak outlook.

According to a YouGov* survey of nurses and midwives, a staggering 83 per cent of respondents said they were already stressed by day to day expenses and over three quarters (77 per cent) felt underpaid.

If hit with a wage freeze, results show nurses and midwives would curb monthly expenses by an average of $350, highlighting the broader economic impact on NSW communities. Meanwhile, 80 per cent of respondents indicated spending would drop significantly on eating out, gym membership and shopping.

Alarmingly, over half (56 per cent) of respondents indicated their household had already suffered employment impacts due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA) General Secretary, Brett Holmes, said the evidence was clear that a wage freeze is fundamentally bad public policy and would lead to stagnant growth across the NSW economy, rather than assist its recovery.

“This data reinforces what economists have been saying about a wage freeze. People will slash their spending, because the impact of a real wage cut indicates far worse times are ahead,” said Mr Holmes.

“There’s a flurry of people getting back out into the community and hitting the shops right now, but if this wage freeze goes ahead, and if private sector employers follow the government to also impose wage cuts, then we will see a dramatic shift.

“This is the opposite of what we need to get the NSW economy going again and the opposite of how we should be supporting sectors, like retail and hospitality, to get back on their feet again.

“The government says it’s focused on our post-pandemic recovery. It should invest in public sector workers’ wages and give them the confidence to spend in local shops and support businesses.”

The YouGov survey also shows a wage freeze would devastate nurses and midwives’ plans for beyond the bedside, with almost half who currently make voluntary super contributions forced to cut back.

“Representing a female dominated industry, we already hold concerns about our members’ super entitlements. Now 93 per cent tell us they are worried about having enough money for a comfortable retirement,” Mr Holmes said.

“We again call on the Premier and Treasurer to abandon their public sector wage freeze and honour the 2.5 per cent pay increase.”

New analysis by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work also confirmed reduced consumer spending from a wage freeze would impact the same sectors already struggling from the pandemic.

Economist Dr Jim Stanford said this would impose a double burden on the small businesses that dominate the retail, hospitality and tourism sectors.

“The industries that have already been most damaged by the pandemic, would now suffer a double blow from this needless and self-defeating action,” said Dr Stanford in his analysis.

“[The state government] should indicate to the broader economic and business community its conviction that wage increases will help the economic recovery, not hurt it – and lead by example, by compensating its own employees for the invaluable job they have done.”

The NSWNMA will appear in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission today and tomorrow on behalf of members, arguing for nurses and midwives to receive their 2.5% pay increase from 1 July.

*The report conducted by research company YouGov reached 2,700 NSWNMA public sector members, from Friday 12 June to Wednesday 17 June 2020.

Verified by MonsterInsights