D-Day for bitter wage stoush

The powerful Health Services Union (HSU) is set to meet with the NSW government, amid threats of “escalating industrial action” from Monday, as public sector pay negotiations threaten to boil over.

The union, which represents about 74,000 members, called on the government to confirm whether they will accept the percentage increase, or agree to a flat $3500 annual salary boost for members.

They also called on the government to supply a timeline for proposed salary packaging reform and a commitment to fund award reform so wages “reflect the changing nature of work”.

HSU NSW secretary Gerard Hayes is set to meet with the government at 8.30am on Friday morning, however he said negotiations to date have been “slow”.

“I think the government’s view is they will stare us down, and we’ll get tired and go home,” he said.

“The last 10 weeks has been all about education and mobilisation, so it hasn’t begun yet as much as they would think it has.”

Whether the HSU chooses to continue to the threatened industrial actions will depend on the government’s response to their demands, however Mr Hayes said: “I don’t think they’ve (HSU members) come all this way to stop.”

“We had our conference this week and the members took a very firm position on getting to today,” he said.

“Once we get some advice from the government this morning, we will go back to our membership and our members will decide whether it‘s acceptable or unacceptable.”

Acting Premier Prue Car has maintained the government will continue good faith bargaining with the HSU and all worker’s bodies.

“We’re in negotiations to ensure we come good on our election commitment, which is to actually treat our essential workers with the respect they deserve, and were denied under a wage cap for a decade and the previous government,” she said.

“We are committed to giving essential frontline workers the pay and that they deserve as a function of respect.”

While the government grapples with pacifying the HSU and brokering a deal, the opposition has seized on the opportunity to criticise its promise to boost all public sector wages by 4.5 per cent (inclusive of a 0.5 per cent superannuation boost. )

“It is now abundantly clear that health workers across our state were lied to by the Labor Government before the election, a promise of wage increases that the Government can’t deliver,” said opposition spokesperson for health, Matt Kean.

Earlier this week, Mr Kean called on the Premier Chris Minns to return from holiday early to negotiate with the HSU, however this was quickly shot down by Ms Car.

Mr Kean said it wasn’t feasible to the government to pay for the wage increases through budget savings and productivity measures alone.

“Already we’ve seen families pay the price for Labor’s unfunded election promises, with essential cost of living programs slashed and cut, while households struggle with record inflation and higher interest rates – families simply can’t afford to pay more, Labor need to come clean on how they’ll pay for a wage increase,” he said.