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Newcastle Herald
Newcastle Herald
Health

Five weeks of fury: Hunter paramedics in statewide industrial action

PARAMEDICS in the Hunter and across NSW will become mobile billboards as paramedics ratchet up their campaign to get pay on par with interstate colleagues.

The promised "five weeks of fury" will include work bans and highly visible civil disobedience.

The Health Services Union says nearly a year of negotiations with NSW Health had failed to get a pay deal reflecting paramedics' professionalism, productivity and enhanced skills.

"Ambulances will turn into mobile billboards and the message will be sent very clearly and loudly," Health Services Union secretary Gerard Hayes told AAP.

"Paramedics don't want to do this but they're very satisfied they've tried to do the right thing for a long time and this is the point they're at."

Mr Hayes said a community outreach program that would take the burden off stretched hospitals had been developed but not implemented, while those with higher-level skills weren't being compensated like those in Queensland, Victoria and the ACT.

"We have a paramedic at Queanbeyan, his son works in the ACT as a paramedic and gets $10 an hour more than him. They're probably equally experienced," he said.

Work bans will include a prohibition on using those higher skills while the union promised "a range of further surprise tactics and actions" in the lead-up to the March 25 election.

Mr Hayes said it was not a ploy to help Labor get into government and committed to pushing the party to implement the desired changes.

NSW Health said it had engaged extensively with the HSU about the "options, benefits and impacts" of potential changes to how professional paramedics might be used in the broader health system.

"NSW Health continues to consult with representatives of the broader health system, on proposals arising from the forum," a spokeswoman told AAP.

"Should there be any proposed changes to the Paramedics and Control Centre Officers Award, NSW Health will consult with relevant unions such as the Health Services Union and the Australian Paramedics Association."

The Coalition government last June committed $1.8 billion to build 30 new ambulance stations and recruit more than 2000 paramedics and staff, while offering a $3000 bonus to all health workers.

Labor has promised to ditch the three per cent wages cap but won't commit to wages rising with inflation (7.8 per cent in December).

If elected, Labor would add 500 paramedics in rural and regional areas by 2027, it said on Wednesday.

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the government would continue working in good faith to modernise NSW Ambulance awards and conditions.

"To now be threatening industrial action just before the election smacks of NSW Labor leadership interference, playing politics at the expense of patients," the spokeswoman told AAP.

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