United Voice News
Health Support Workers Beat State Government Wages Policy
A two year agreement was finally reached with the State Government over wages and conditions for Health Support Workers in government hospitals.
The State government were forced to agree to maintain all current conditions in the agreement, including maintaining the no-privatisation clause in our existing agreement.
Support workers will receive a pay rise of 7% over the two year agreement and have stared down an aggressive attempt by the government to strip down conditions and increase the casualisation of the hospital workforce.
“The pay rise is not as much as the $50 per week our members were seeking, to help cover the crippling costs of rising bills, but it is much more that the 5.75% the government was originally offering.” Dave Kelly Secretary LHMU
However, just hours after the agreement was reached the government was backing away from the no-privatisation clause, saying that it would not affect their plans to privatise support services at Fiona Stanley Hospital.
Dave Kelly, “It just goes to show that you cannot trust this government, they will do and say anything to get what they want. We will continue to fight the government on their plans to privatise our hospitals. The community does not like it and they expect hospitals to be publicly owned and run.”
A major sticking point in negotiations for the agreement over the weekend, for the government was the length of the agreement.
“LHMU members were prepared to accept a two year agreement, however the state government wanted a 3 year deal so that the next negotiations would be after the 2012 election. The Government held out on this issue for 48 hours. They were prepared to cancel surgeries and allow industrial action to continue in hospitals so that they could get a timeline most favorable to their re-election prospects.
“The cynicism of the Health Minister is quite shocking. He would rather allow people to have the surgery cancelled than damage his chances of re-election.”
