October 3, 2024

wages

Rise in NZ nurses seeking to work in Australia

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Recent data suggests that close to a tenth of nurses in NZ have registered to relocate to Australia (as of August 2022).  

Almost 5000 nurses have registered with Australian health regulator AHPRA since August – a major step to beginning work in Australia. 

Nurses are in short supply around the world, partly due to the rising demands of the job and increasing cost of living pressures. 

NZ nurses’ wages are below the Australian equivalent and they are being attracted by additional benefits, including; sign-on bonuses, relocation assistance and salary packaging. Nurses are also able to work on short-term locum contracts in regional areas, attracting higher wages. 

There’s little doubt that the implementation of nurse-to-patient ratios in all mainland states excluding NSW, who are looking to follow suit in the coming months, has had a part to play in this increase of applications.  

Approximately a quarter of all nurses in NZ are migrants. The profession alongside midwives, and specialist doctors have recently been added to the ‘green list’, allowing easier access to residency.  

NZ nurses’ wages were also lifted by up to 14%, bringing them closer to Australian wages. 

This illustrates the state of affairs for nurses internationally. The pay and conditions are not up to scratch and nurses are now opting for substantial lifestyle changes in an attempt to obtain sustainable working conditions. 

Nurses’ wages in NSW have been declining in real terms for a decade, while the industry is in crisis. 

The new NSW government has committed to scrapping the NSW public sector wage cap and implementing safe nurse-to-patient ratios starting in five key areas, including ED, ICU and in the wards.  

The NSWNMA will continue working with the new NSW government to implement a fair pay increase and safe nurse-to-patient ratios to ensure nurses and midwives in Australia get the pay and conditions that they deserve. 

‘Let it rip’ left health system exposed

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The Coalition’s “let it rip” approach to COVID-19 condemned vulnerable people to an early death and left understaffed hospitals facing surging rates of illness.

In December 2021, newly minted Premier Dominic Perrottet embarked on a “let it rip” approach to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in NSW.

Backed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Perrottet dropped the state’s last remaining restrictions on mask-wearing, mandatory QR code check-ins and venue capacity limits.

As a result, Omicron ran rampant.

Within weeks Perrottet was forced to backtrack and reimpose mandatory mask wearing indoors, density limits and QR code check-ins.

It was too late.

As OzSAGE, an independent, multi-disciplinary group including infectious disease and public health experts, put it, the Coalition’s “let it rip” strategy “condemned many people to death” and placed an enormous strain on an already exhausted health system.

Among those left vulnerable by “let it rip” were patients with cancer and other immunosuppressed people, and those with co-existing health conditions.

Worst hit were nursing home residents, left vulnerable by the Morrison government’s failure 
to adequately prepare the aged care sector nationwide.

Department of Health and Aged Care data showed Australia’s nursing homes had reported 
2055 deaths related to COVID in the first six months of 2022.

The number dwarfed the death tolls of 231 in 2021 and 686 in 2020.

In NSW, nurses and other healthcare workers were left to clean up Perrottet’s shambolic mess.

An “alarming” burden on hospitals

Our hospitals, badly understaffed before COVID-19, suddenly had to deal with surging rates of COVID.

Emergency departments were overwhelmed and suspected COVID patients mixed with non-COVID patients over long periods in waiting rooms.

During January 2022, more than 6000 health workers were forced to isolate on a single day.

Six months later, on 15 July, there were still 2719 health workers in isolation across the state.

Exhausted nurses came under intense pressure to work overtime and return to work after shorter isolation.

As OzSAGE reported, the burden placed on the public hospital system was “alarming and under-reported”.

However, Perrottet and his health minister claimed that hospitals were adequately staffed and “coping” with the strain.

Such cavalier remarks left nurses and midwives rightfully furious, said Shaye Candish, NSWNMA general secretary.

“Their actions and inactions have led us to this. Their persistence in saying the system is coping reveals a complete disregard for the truth,” Shaye said.

“It is outrageous that Dominic Perrottet continues to spin the lie that our public healthcare system is ‘strong’.

“He repeats this lie while nurses and midwives are exhausted, working excessive overtime and hospitals remain short-staffed. Patient care is suffering.”

‘Their persistence in saying the system is coping reveals a complete disregard for the truth.’ — NSWNMA general secretary Shaye Candish

Coalition is a laggard on safe staffing

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The Liberal–National Coalition that runs NSW has been left behind by other parties on the issue most crucial to the safe operation of our hospital system: enforceable minimum ratios to ensure safer staffing.

When this edition of The Lamp went to press, the Coalition hadn’t moved far from the position laid down by  Premier Perrottet and Health Minister Hazzard at the height of the pandemic – that the existing staffing system is effective and that nurses should stop complaining and learn to “cope”.

Meanwhile, in the real world, increasing work pressure is taking a heavy physical and psychological toll on nurses and midwives.

A recent survey of NSWNMA members in public health shows nine in every 10 nurses and midwives have had their workload increased since the pandemic.

The survey also shows that work pressure is forcing many experienced nurses and midwives to search for other jobs in the sector, or quit the profession early.

Further, almost half the union membership has been asked to work outside their usual scope of practice – mostly without the necessary education and training.

In October 2022, the NSW Labor opposition recognised the need for action and promised to introduce mandated, shift-by-shift staffing if it wins the March state election.

Labor pledged to phase in our claim for EDs, ICUs and maternity – and minimum shift-by-shift nurse numbers in multi-purpose services with a 24-hour ED.

It also pledged to convert all existing nursing-hours-per-patient-day wards to a shift-by-shift system.

Labor hasn’t committed to all that we are seeking – important areas still need to be addressed.

However, as NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish put it, Labor has made “a promising start towards long overdue reforms”.

In the NSW Parliament, the Greens have tabled ratios legislation and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers’ Party also support mandated safe staffing ratios.

This means our campaign for shift-by-shift ratios now has serious momentum.

This is due to the hard and often brave work done by NSWNMA members in their workplaces and in the community.

Members voted overwhelmingly to hold four statewide strikes in 2022. Many nurses and midwives who stopped work and marched with placards and banners in our cities and country towns had never been on strike before.

Despite veiled threats of reprisals, nurses put themselves in front of TV cameras, in their local newspapers and on the radio to tell the public the true state of our hospitals.

Thousands of nurses used social media to persuade others to their point of view and organise action at a local level. They collected signatures on petitions and lobbied members of parliament.

The next step in the campaign involves asking the community to use their vote in the upcoming election to support nurses and midwives.

The wages cap is an attack on nurses and midwives living standards

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The Perrottet government’s wages caps have so far cost NSW nurses and midwives $80,000 each.

The NSW Government’s wage cap is a disaster for everybody, but especially for women says NSWNMA general secretary, Shaye Candish.

“NSW is the second worst paid state in Australia because of this policy, making it near impossible to attract and retain staff in such a tight labour market,” Shaye explains.

“It’s clearly a bad policy for nurses and midwives, but it also has dire implications for regional economies and communities and the health sector overall.”

A report by the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute into the impact of the wage caps since their introduction in 2012, shows public sector nurses and midwives will suffer a cumulative loss of $120,000 in pay by 2023–24.

“By the 2021–22 financial year, wages for an experienced nurse/midwife working full-time were $335 lower per week – or about $17,500 for the year – as a result of these pay caps in place since 2012,” it says.

“On a cumulative basis, this wage suppression amounts to a combined loss of $80,000 in wages since the wage caps were first imposed.”

The impact of the wage caps has become especially acute with the steep rise in inflation, the report says.

“Real wages for nurses and midwives have already fallen over 3 per cent in the last two years, reducing their real purchasing power by $3000 per year, per employee.”

The Australia Institute report says the pay caps have contributed to falling real wages and made it more difficult to attract workers to vital service roles like health care.

2.19% – in the 10 years since the pay caps were imposed, pay has grown at an annual rate of 2.19 per cent across all classifications

4% – in contrast, in the 20 years before the cap was imposed, average wages grew at almost 4 per cent per year.

On a cumulative basis, this wage suppression amounts to a combined loss of $80,000 in wages since the pay caps were first imposed.

If the pay caps are retained those losses will accumulate further over the next two financial years: to $390 per week in lost wages and a cumulative loss of $120,000 per nurse by 2023-24.

 

The wages cap reduces superannuation too

The NSW Government’s wages caps not only hurt nurses and midwives while they are working – they also have lasting, harmful consequences after they retire.

By 2021–22, an experienced nurse or midwife had already lost over $1700 in superannuation contributions on top of the $17,500 reduction in their wages that year. Forecast forward, that loss of annual contributions swells to over $2200 by 2023–24, according to the report by the Australia Institute.

After a decade of capped pay, super balances for experienced nurses and midwives were almost $7800 lower than if the pre-cap wage trajectory had been maintained. The loss grows quickly in future years – by 2023–24 the typical nurse or midwife will have lost over $12,500 in their super balance.

The wages cap makes it likely that more nurses will join the growing proportion of the population who cannot afford to buy a home.

NSWNMA general secretary, Shaye Candish, says that thanks to the NSW government’s ongoing wage caps, most nurses and midwives will fall well short of the thresholds considered for a “comfortable” retirement.

“Nurses and midwives across NSW will be unable to retire in dignity, the longer these cruel wage caps remain in place.”

 

What the wages cap costs a nurse or midwife in super

$7800 – by 2021–22

$12,500 – by 2023–24

 

Where the parties stand on WAGES

Coalition

The Coalition capped wages at 2.5 per cent from 2012 to 2020.

In 2020-21 during COVID, nurses and midwives only received a 0.3 per cent pay rise.

More recently the government raised the cap to allow 3 per cent increases in 2022–23 and 3.5 per cent in 2023–24.

They are still committed to a cap on public sector wages.

The Greens

The Greens are committed to repealing the NSW Public Sector Wages Policy, removing the wage cap on public sector workers and restoring the autonomous NSW Industrial Relations Commission as the independent umpire in industrial disputes.

Labor

Leader Chris Minns says Labor will abolish the wages cap and replace it with a system of bargaining based on productivity.

We won’t forget you, Albanese tells staff

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Labor leader Anthony Albanese called on PM Morrison to explain why he rejected many of the royal commission’s most important recommendations – including a nurse on duty at all times.

In his reply to the Budget, Mr Albanese also criticised the government’s failure to support increases in “the appallingly low wages of hard-working aged care staff.”

He pledged a Labor government “will not forget the dedicated, mostly female staff who care for our elderly, [and are] almost  uniformly understaffed and underpaid.”

Labor would ensure that “every dollar spent in aged care goes to employing a guaranteed minimum level of nurses, assistants and carers, and to daily needs like decent food – rather than into the pockets of the more unscrupulous providers.”

“We also support the Fair Work Commission moving quickly to meaningfully lift the wages of aged care workers,” he said.

Seven in 10 Australians want action on wages

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More than 70 per cent of Australians want action on low wage growth according to a poll conducted for the ACTU.

It found that 80 per cent of working Australians haven’t received a pay rise that has kept pace with the rising cost of living in the last 12 months.

More than half of working people had not had a pay rise at all, while a further 28.6 per cent had received an increase so small it did not cover the expanding cost of essential items.

Three in four voters said that low wage growth was either the top issue or an important issue when they considered how they would vote in the federal election.

Wages have been stalled in real terms for more than six years, with real median wage growth close to zero, says the ACTU, despite the consistently optimistic forecasts by the Morrison government for higher wage growth.

More than six in 10 people polled approved of the ALP’s proposal to increase the minimum wage to a living wage.

This article was originally published in the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association publication, Lamp. 

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