![Images from the rally held outside NSW parliament on September 12; and a chalked up ambulance outside Wollongong Hospital calling for Chris Minns to take action. Pictures supplied, and file picture Images from the rally held outside NSW parliament on September 12; and a chalked up ambulance outside Wollongong Hospital calling for Chris Minns to take action. Pictures supplied, and file picture](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/HcD9H4nNcktxiWcmkEEpQD/31f4a9df-5aa5-4962-b372-46ec5ac80c1e.jpg/r0_0_1367_848_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Illawarra paramedic and senior HSU delegate Tess Oxley has lead a rally outside parliament house to call on the NSW Government to change the way paramedics across the state are paid.
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A week from Labor's first budget, paramedics say they are not happy with the response from Premier Chirs Minns and Health Minister Ryan Park over their calls for better pay.
In July, the government and the health union - which also represents cleaning staff, security and allied health workers - agreed to a deal giving many of the state's health workers a $3500 flat rate pay rise.
Paramedics will not be covered by that deal, and mare making their own professional rates claim to have their wages brought on par with other states.
![Picture by Darren Malone. Picture by Darren Malone.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/HcD9H4nNcktxiWcmkEEpQD/2476b55f-8f3d-4dee-a4e4-58e9d480f706.jpg/r0_210_1152_858_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
At the September 12 rally, Ms Oxley, who is also the President of the Australasian Council of Ambulance Unions, said paramedics wanted the government to recognise that their roles had significantly expanded but that their pay scales had not kept up
She said so far, the Labor government had not done anything to address these concerns.
"We are the lowest paid paramedics in the country, we are the highest injured and we turn up every day, and we are not going to stand by and continue to be able to say this," she said.
"We are going to be recognised for the professionals we are and it's about time the Minns government hears us."
"It's been a long time since we were ambulance drivers."
![Picture by Darren Malone Picture by Darren Malone](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/HcD9H4nNcktxiWcmkEEpQD/fab68d3f-f2c0-463e-95e7-aba741ae51f6.jpg/r0_108_1152_756_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
HSU secretary Gerard Hayes said the rally was just the start of wider industrial action planned, and that "virtually every paramedic in the state" would gather outside parliament in four weeks to continue the campaign.
"We will bus them in, we will fly them in, but our message is very clear," he said.
As the budget approaches, the Labor government has repeatedly said it faces a "challenging" financial position, ans will have to make "difficult but responsible decisions with spending" while supporting frontline workers.
On the weekend, it announced it would make good on an election commitment to deliver better salary packaging, which allows employees to decrease the amount of tax payable on their income.
Under current salary packaging arrangements, the resulting tax savings are split equally between health workers and NSW Health.
But under new changes, HSU award workers' will get 70 per cent of those tax savings.
The government said this would mean a cleaner would see an increase in their after-tax take-home pay of just under $15 a week.
Ms Minns said 50,000 health care workers would benefit from this change and that the government was working towards giving 100 per cent of the tax savings during its first term.