Signs declaring the ‘financial abuse’ and that nurses are thinking of crossing the border to Queensland for work featured at Tuesday’s nurses and midwives rally at the new Tweed Valley Hospital.
Around 200 hundred nurses from Tweed, Lismore, Byron Bay, Casino and Clarence Valley to highlight that NSW nurses are the lowest paid in the country.
‘The government have flatly refused to negotiate for a 15 per cent increase in wages,’ said Angie Gittus, Branch Secretary of the Murwillumbah Hospital Branch of the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association (NSWNMA).
‘We’ve had increased turnover of nurses and midwives in NSW in 2023 – that is double that of 2010.
‘Wages were capped in NSW in 2008 at 2.5 per cent then they were frozen during Covid so we haven’t had an increase in line with inflation since 2008. So our wages are behind colleagues in other states and we are the lowest-paid nurses and midwives in Australia.
‘Here in the Northern NSW LHD (Local Health District) we are parked right beside are parked right beside Queensland and they are the highest paid nurses in Australia and a new graduate in Queensland makes $12,000 more than a new graduate in NSW as well as receiving other benefits. So we might train the new graduates here in Northern NSW and then they jump ship to Queensland and I don’t blame them.
‘More and more experienced nurses and midwives choosing to move across the border to Queensland for better pay and conditions, or leave the industry altogether.’
While there is a significant increase in the number of nursing graduates, which Ms Gittus said was really encouraging, she highlighted that there has not been a commensurate increase in clinical nurse educator hours and this is leaving senior staff overloaded with mentoring graduates and managing shifts.
‘That means there is an increasing load on senior staff when you are working with a lot of junior staff etc. They not only have their own work but need to make sure other staff are working effectively and that patients are been seen. Both our responsibility and our cognitive load has increased and we are not being paid appropriately.
Ms Guittus highlighted that ‘while shifts are being filled the real concern is the mix of skills that are available on any particular shift.
‘In the year 2022-23 we did 2.8m hours of overtime. People are taking overtime because the wages are so low as well as feeling concern for their colleagues and patients. As well as 2.8m hours of overtime we used an additional 1.9m agency hours over two years. That speaks to how understaffed we are.’
NSWNMA General Secretary, Shaye Candish demanded the state government provide a lifeline to fix the staffing crisis engulfing the region by providing a 15 per cent, one-year pay increase.
‘It’s time the state’s largest female-dominated professions were valued and respected, and paid what they are worth.’
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