NSW agreement reached after months-long dispute
Paramedics in New South Wales have accepted a record pay offer from the state government fending off a mass walkout on January the first. Senior paramedics will receive a 29 per cent pay rise over four years under the deal at a cost of half a billion dollars to taxpayers.
Transcript
00:00 This has been an incredibly hard-fought case between the Health Services Union and the
00:07 State Government.
00:08 For 18 months they have been fighting about paramedics' wages in New South Wales.
00:12 The Health Services Union says that New South Wales paramedics have been going to other
00:16 states and that less than 5 per cent are not currently considering quitting the service.
00:22 But this deal today, the Health Services Union says, has solved that problem and will keep
00:27 New South Wales paramedics in this state.
00:30 Under this deal that has been negotiated there will be an average 25 per cent pay increase
00:36 for paramedics.
00:37 So for example, paramedics with six years of experience will go from an average salary
00:42 of $79,000 to $103,000.
00:46 For critical care paramedics in the state, they'll go from a $98,000 a year salary to
00:52 around $127,000.
00:55 The HSU has said that a third of the state's 6,000 paramedics successfully forced this
01:02 action by refusing to renew their professional registration.
01:06 Basically meaning that about a third of the state's workforce would be unable to work
01:11 come the 1st of January.
01:13 There's been a flurry of late-night meetings, of phone calls leading up to today and the
01:18 Health Services Union Secretary Gerard Hayes was visibly emotional today as he explained
01:24 the toll that this has taken on him.
01:27 This has been so difficult.
01:32 We could not be here to look after the community of New South Wales without the dedication
01:40 that our members have.
01:41 This is a four-year deal.
01:42 The Treasurer says that paramedics will start to see their pay increase from the 1st of
01:47 January.
01:48 The biggest part of that pay increase will come in the first two years.
01:51 And it does leave open the question of nurses and teachers and other public sector workers
01:57 who have not quite finished their pay negotiations, who are looking to re-sign negotiations with
02:03 the government in the next couple of years.
02:05 Will they too see pay rises quite as big as this?
02:08 [BLANK_AUDIO]