State agrees to health staff deal
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The NSW Government has reached a pay agreement affecting 50,000 workers.
The state government has announced an agreement with the Health Services Union (HSU), delivering a 4 per cent wage increase and enhanced salary packaging benefits to over 50,000 public health workers across the state.
Under this new framework, eligible workers in roles including allied health, cleaning, security, and patient support, will receive a 3.5 per cent base salary increase along with a 0.5 per cent superannuation increment for one year.
Backdated to July 1, 2024, the agreement will also extend salary packaging benefits to 100 per cent, addressing a key electoral promise by the government.
“This is a generational advance for 50,000 health workers who have earned every cent of this pay rise,” said HSU Secretary Gerard Hayes.
He added that the salary packaging reform “will be life-changing for hard-working people on modest incomes”.
Hayes said the reforms are an overdue recognition of health workers’ contributions.
The agreement also establishes a framework for an ongoing cost-of-living payment, promising a one-off $1,000 payment if Sydney’s annual Consumer Price Index exceeds 4 per cent by March 2025.
It also lays groundwork for modernising award provisions, with the NSW Government and HSU pledging to develop a three-year wage arrangement when the one-year award concludes.
The arrangement follows a 4.5 per cent wage rise last year, the largest increase in over ten years, and highlights the government’s move away from the previous wage cap imposed by the former LNP government.
The NSW Government has also secured recent pay agreements with other public sectors, including a 3 per cent annual pay increase for teachers over three years.
However, negotiations with nurses and midwives continue, with current discussions seeking a multi-year, 10.5 per cent increase across three years as unions press for more substantial adjustments.
