1. What:  SA health and disability workers rally outside the Treasurer’s office
    Where & When: Rally:  9:45 AM, Friday August 22

    Office of Treasurer Stephen Mullighan

    3 Charles Street, West Lakes SA
    Who:  United Worker Union members in health support and disability, United Workers Union SA State Secretary and National Public Sector Director Demi Pnevmatikos

     

    More than one hundred health support workers will stop work today (EDS: Friday, August 22) and rally outside Treasurer Stephen Mullighan’s office demanding action on wages from the South Australian state government.

    The rally comes on the back of protracted negotiations, with workers holding the Treasurer to account for a 20 per cent pay gap with workers doing exactly the same jobs in other states.

    The Treasurer will be a key decision maker in considering the government’s new offer to workers, expected later this month.

    “The Treasurer has no excuse – South Australians deserve better. Our members are paid at least 20 per cent lower than workers in other states doing exactly the same job. That’s unacceptable, unsustainable, and it’s driving a crisis in our hospitals and disability services,” United Workers Union SA State Secretary and National Public Sector Director Demi Pnevmatikos said today.

    “When it comes to Disability Support Workers, this is brazen wage theft. The Treasurer is banking Commonwealth money from the NDIS meant for workers, and short changing the very people who keep our health and disability systems standing.

    “If Stephen Mulliighan and the Premier are serious about ending ramping and addressing a long hospital waitlist, they need to pay the workforce properly. Underinvestment in people means poorer outcomes for patients, and South Australians are paying the price.”

    United Workers Union has coverage of a broad range of health roles including hospital cleaners, patient services assistants, operating theatre techs, food services, laundry and sterilisation technicians, including in remote and regional areas.

    Tomorrow’s rally will include workers from the Royal Adelaide Hospital, Lyell McEwin Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Glenside Health Services, and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital walking off the job to demand action. This follows escalating industrial action, including a two-hour stop work that saw 200 hospital workers from the South rally outside the Health Minister’s office. Since February, health and disability workers have been fighting for pay parity – and they refuse to back down.

    United Workers Union Delegate and Patient Services Assistant Barb Possingham said:

    “The Treasurer has ignored us for too long. Tomorrow we’re bringing the fight to his doorstep. We are the people who clean, feed and support patients and who make sure surgeries can happen safely. We deserve respect, and proper wages. We look forward to receiving the improved offer the Premier promised we would get this month.”