United Voice News
Hospital support workers to strike and go to Parliament over pay and privatisation
Up to 8000 health support workers in hospitals across WA will be taking strike action tomorrow over the government’s paltry pay offer and Colin Barnett’s privatisation agenda for hospitals.
The four hour stoppage will start at midday on Tuesday, October 12, and workers from metro hospitals will be meeting outside parliament house at 1pm to call for their share of the surplus.
Workers from country hospitals will be meeting at post offices in towns across the state and will be getting anti-privatisation petitions signed by members of the public.
The workers, who include cleaners, orderlies, patient care assistants, catering staff and sterilization technicians, are outraged that the latest measly pay offer from the government still comes with all the deeply unpopular trade offs relating to privatisation in tact.
Carolyn Smith, assistant secretary of the LHMU said: “It is still an insulting offer. This government wants our members to agree to privatising their own jobs and give them what is still a very mean pay rise while it sits there boasting about its $830m surplus.
“The Barnett government also seems hell bent on changing the wording in the new agreement so they can put all new hospital support workers on temporary and fixed term contracts, thus paving the way for job cuts without redundancy pay outs and an orgy of privatisation.
“Our members are very angry their job security is being threatened.
“As users of the public health system they are also furious that the government is determined to bring private operators into hospitals. They know from bitter experience that private operators cut corners in pursuit of a healthy profit and hold governments to ransom when their ‘efficiencies’ result in problems like superbugs.”
The government came in with another new pay offer of 3.5%, 3.5% and 3.5% (an increase of 0.5% each year and only 10c p/h up from the previous offer) late on Thursday but with all the deeply unpopular trade offs relating to privatisation still intact.
