NSW pay battle between paramedics and government heads to Industrial Relations Commission
A bitter pay dispute between some health workers and the NSW government goes before an independent umpire today. It comes as paramedics threaten to let their registrations lapse, jeopardising the triple zero service.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00 The clock is ticking to resolve a pay dispute between the NSW Government and the union representing
00:07 paramedics. Today the two sides go before the Industrial Relations Commission in the
00:12 hope mediation talks could lead to a resolution. The pay dispute came to a head on Friday after
00:18 the Health Services Union rejected the state government's offer. The government proposed
00:23 boosting paramedics' pay from 11 to 25 per cent over four years, claiming it'll bring
00:28 them in line with Queensland by 2025. The union shot back saying it's inadequate. It's
00:35 calling for increases of at least 20 per cent to stop paramedics from moving to states offering
00:41 better wages. Health Minister Ryan Park provided an update on negotiations as he announced
00:46 Bankstown Libcom Hospital in south-west Sydney would relocate to the TAFE campus in Bankstown
00:52 CBD by 2029. "I want to welcome the number of discussions we've had over the weekend.
00:58 Today we go into the Industrial Relations Commission. We'll continue to have that engagement.
01:03 I want to thank the union for continuing to have those discussions and I want to acknowledge
01:08 the enormous amount of work that health is putting in. We know that we need to pay paramedics
01:12 more. We know that their role that they do now is very different to the role they did
01:17 before. But at the same time we've got to make sure that we've got a triple O system
01:22 that works on New Year's Eve. And what I think, we've put an offer that is strong enough
01:28 and worthy enough to not put that at risk. That's why we're continuing to stay at the
01:33 table." About 2,000 paramedics are threatening to let their registrations lapse, effectively
01:39 disallowing them from responding to triple zero calls from January 1. "We're having a
01:44 look at a range of options. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. We're not up
01:48 to that stage yet. We're at the stage of negotiating and engaging with the union. We're at the
01:54 stage of engaging the process through the independent umpire. We're going to continue
01:58 to do that. We're not going to get too far ahead of ourselves but people should know
02:03 that we are preparing for a range of different contingencies. The community would expect
02:08 that. We've been quite open about that but it's one step at a time at this stage." Both
02:13 sides agree paramedics deserve more money but how much more is at the centre of their
02:18 conflict? Today's mediation conference could help them find an answer.
02:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]