Nurses on strike as NSW Premier Chris Minns says he ‘just can’t agree’ to pay claim

Nurses are on strike despite a recommendation to accept an interim pay rise and continue negotiating, with public rallies planned as they call for pay rises.

The 24-hour stop-work action by nurses and midwives on Tuesday will affect elective surgery and cause delays for some patients, while support for life-saving care is not expected to be impacted.

The government had not made a genuine attempt to negotiate on pay and conditions, NSW Nurses and Midwives general secretary Shaye Candish said.

“The state government could have stopped this industrial action from occurring by coming to the table with an improved offer, but it has chosen to ignore us repeatedly,” Ms Candish said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Nurses and midwives are outraged by the government’s unwillingness to negotiate beyond its insulting three per cent offer, especially since we found the savings to fund the pay rise,” she said.

Industrial Relations Commission president Ingmar Taylor had not yet examined the union’s argument for pay rises but recommended an interim deal and four weeks of “intensive discussions” in a bid to broker a deal.

Health Minister Ryan Park said officials had sought to contact patients with surgery scheduled to make alternative arrangements due to the industrial action.

“I acknowledge the dispute between the government and the association has a way to go,” he said on Monday.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association action started at 7 am in the union’s second major stop-work action since Labor came to power in March 2023.

The strike is part of a union push for a 15 per cent, one-year pay rise, a demand Premier Chris Minns has said is unaffordable.

“I just can’t agree to (it),” Mr Minns said on Monday.

“As a result of the nurse’s claim and demands at the last election for ratios, or safe-staffing levels, in NSW hospitals, which the government agreed to, we’ve had to recruit 2000 nurses.”

Other workers would be lining up for pay rises too if the nurses got the 15 per cent they sought, he said.

All NSW public sector workers, including nurses, have been offered a three-year, 10.5 per cent pay increase factoring in a mandatory rise in superannuation payments.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said the government needed to make sure the strike did not compromise patient safety.

“It’s also incumbent on the nurses union to cooperate to the same extent,” he said.

Public rallies are planned outside Parliament House in Sydney as well as in Tweed Heads and Albury near the Queensland and Victorian borders, two states the union says nurses are moving to secure better pay.

Minimal, life-preserving staff levels will remain in public hospitals and health services during the strike, the union said.