More than 50,000 health workers, including allied health roles, hospital cleaners and more will be covered by the pay agreement. · Source: Getty/AAP
Thousands of NSW health workers have secured a 4 per cent pay rise and salary packaging benefits under a new agreement with the state government. The Health Services Union (HSU) inked the deal today and said it would be life-changing for some workers.
More than 50,000 health workers, including allied health, hospital cleaners, scientists, security officers and patient transport officers will be covered by the new enterprise agreement. They will receive a one-year pay increase of 3.5 per cent, plus 0.5 per cent in superannuation.
The agreement will also provide 100 per cent salary packaging. That will increase the share of salary packaging benefits for eligible workers from 70 per cent, backdated to July 1, 2024.
Health Minister Ryan Park said the deal had been a collaborative effort and built on a four-year agreement reached with paramedics late last year.
The NSW Government and the HSU have agreed to work together to identify system changes, productivity outcomes, benefits from award reform and savings, Park said.
HSU secretary Gerard Hayes said the agreement was a historic win for union members.
This is a generational advance for 50,000 health workers who have earned every cent of this pay rise, Hayes said.
The reform to salary packaging will be life-changing for hard-working people on modest incomes.
The deal also includes a once-off $1,000 cost-of-living payment for workers if Sydney's CPI surpasses 4 per cent in the year to the March quarter of 2025.
It follows a 4.5 per cent pay rise delivered last year, which the government said was the highest in more than a decade.
Teachers secure pay rise, while nurse negotiations continue
It comes after 95,000 public school teachers in the state secured an annual 3 per cent pay rise over three years, along with the promise of a similar $1,000 cost-of-living payment.
NSW Teachers Federation said the deal built on last year's historic gains and strengthened efforts to tackle the teacher shortage.
Nurses and midwives are still at the negotiating table, after the NSW government struck a truce with the nurses union in September after months of wage negotiations and strikes.
The government committed to an interim 3 per cent pay increase, less than a quarter of the 15 per cent the union was asking for.
All NSW public sector workers, including nurses, have been offered a three-year, 10.5 per cent pay increase including a mandatory rise in superannuation payments.
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