Almost 70,000 nurses, midwives, and nursing assistants will receive significant wage increases within a period of three years after New South Wales Industrial Relations Commission ruled that their work had not been adequately compensated over many decades.
According to the commission’s ruling released on Thursday, registered nurses and midwives will receive a salary uplift of 16% for the duration of the agreement, while enrolled nurses will get 18% and nursing assistants 28%.
Most of the pay raise will take place immediately, and it will be backdated from July 2025, with additional increases of 3% guaranteed for the subsequent two years.
The president of the commission, Justice Ingmar Taylor, said that the staff members were crucial to the operations of Australia’s biggest public health system, whose wage structure did not adequately represent the intricacies of their work.
Also Read: Third count ordered in SA seat of Narungga after 81 ballots found uncounted
Justice Ingmar Taylor, head of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, said in his decision, “Nurses and midwives are the DNA of the NSW health system.”
The ruling also said that gender was probably a factor in the long running wage gap.
Around 90% of nurses and midwives in NSW are women. This is about half of all the people who work for the state’s health service.
Justice Taylor said that many of the skills needed for the job had not been recognized in the past, which could mean that pay levels were lower because of the gender makeup of the work.
The result comes after two years of mediation and is the culmination of a protracted battle waged by the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, who sought an average of 35% wage increase over three years.
War News: US Navy blockade of Iranian ports holds firm, Pentagon says
The agreement did not please everyone. Christie, a Sydney based midwife, informed the media that bringing up a family in the city still imposes a huge financial burden and that workers would go on demanding more.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey applauded the ruling as a fair one, saying at a press briefing that “everyone got what they wanted,” while also adding that the state budget to be announced soon will have to factor in the multi billion dollar price tag.
Mookhey credited the success to the Labor government’s recent policy of reinstituting the industrial arbiter following its removal under the previous government.
