Paramedics feel betrayed and angry by the Labor Government's first budget, which they say has failed to deliver any certainty when it comes to better pay for their struggling workforce.
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Wollongong Health Services Union (HSU) delegate Tess Oxley said her colleagues were feeling underwhelmed by the government's failure to lay out details about whether they would get pay increases.
"Leading into the election, the government made it very clear that we were going to be a priority but this budget has certainly not shown that as a follow through," she said.
"I think paramedics are extremely disappointed, they're angry and I think the government has a long way to go now to rebuild any sort of trust and friendship with NSW paramedics."
In July, the government and the HSU - 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.
However, 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; they are seeking a new pay scale that they say more accurately reflects their skills and experience now they are required to do more specialised jobs.
Ms Oxley said her union would be holding a mass rally in Sydney outside NSW Parliament on October 10, and said some members were also planning to boycott their professional registration to protest a lakc of action of professional recognition.
"Basically, it looks like we've still got a fight ahead of us on this," Ms Oxley said.
"It's cheaper to commute to Queensland and work as a paramedic there than it is to work as a paramedic NSW, because we are still the lowest paid in the country by a considerable margin."
Meanwhile the other union representing paramedics, the Australian Paramedics Association NSW (APA NSW), said its members had been "left in the dirt" by the budget.
"This budget is a betrayal of paramedics and every single frontline healthcare worker in the state," APA NSW president Brett Simpson said.
APA members will begin renewed industrial action from September 21, with bands on KPIs, billing patients, attending special events and staff movements.
Mr Simpson took aim at the government's new healthcare student subsidies, which will give new students $4000 a year if they commit to five years working for NSW Health.
"What good is bribing healthcare students with scholarships when you're then locking them into five years of poverty with the lowest paramedic wages in the country," he said.
"The recent staffing announcements are like putting a band-aid on a bullet hole, as healthcare workers abandon NSW in droves."
Health minister Ryan Park admitted that the government hadn't "landed on paramedics pay rates yet" and said he was still in discussions with the HSU about their pay claim.
"They didn't accept the offer put forward by the government," he said.
"It was the most generous offer in over a decade but the reality is they have made a decision not to accept that. I'll continue to work through it, but it's not necessarily an easy issue."
Mr Park said he did not agree with comments from the APA that the government had betrayed paramedics, as the government had made "a significant investment in frontline services", by allocating funding for 500 new regional and rural paramedics, many of whom will be specialists,
"I do understand there are challenges around the remuneration and professional recognition at the moment, and I'm actively engaged in those discussions," he said.
Ms Oxley said paramedics welcomed the 500 new paramedic positions and said, even though they will not be employed in the Illawarra, they would help alleviate the need for local specialist paramedics to travel to the Shoalhaven and South Coast.
She also said paramedics welcomed the news that they would receive more tax savings through their salary packaging agreements.
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
