Thousands of health care workers in NSW are set to walk off the job on Thursday amid calls for a pay rise.
Workers across the ambulance, allied health, administration, catering, wards, cleaning and security areas will ask for a pay rise of more than 2.5 per cent.
Stop work meetings will take place across metro and regional hospitals, while paramedics will stop work from 7am to 8am to vote on further industrial action.
Thursday’s planned strike comes on the back of a strike by NSW nurses on March 31, who took to the streets to demand better pay and working conditions.
The Health Services Union (HSU) claims despite trying to start legitimate bargaining for productivity-based pay rises, health and hospital workers have been left with no other option but to strike.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows inflation running at 3.5 per cent, with economists predicting it will reach five per cent within months.
Under the NSW wages cap, public sector pay increased cannot legally go beyond 2.5 per cent.
HSU NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes says workers are fed up.
“Health and hospital workers are sick of mealy-mouthed rhetoric. We don’t need another politician thanking us for being heroes of the pandemic, we need a pay rise,” he said.
