Health workers stop work for second time this month, say they can't afford to put food on table
ABC News
20 Jul 2022

Patient care assistant Josie Mogoum says she can no longer afford to continue doing the job she loves. 

Hundreds of health workers warned of a crumbling health system as they rallied for the second time this month to push for higher wages.

Key points:
Health workers say they can't afford to put food on the table
The WA government is not budging on its wages policy
COVID hospital admissions reached a new high of 457, with 22 in ICU
"I love my job. I enjoy my job. But the problem here is ... I cannot afford [it] anymore," patient care assistant Josie Mogoum said at the stop work meeting.

"I want to put food on the table. Some days, my family, we have to live with bread."   

Undervalued and overworked was the sentiment shared by the rally goers gathered outside Royal Perth Hospital to push for the state government to change its wages policy.

Public sector wages have been capped at 2.75 per cent, or 2.5 per cent with a $1,000 sign-on bonus.

The health workers, mostly donning masks and uniforms, said it was creating a class of "working poor".   

Health workers in uniform and masks gather in crowds outside a hospital.
Industrial action has been escalating for months over WA's wages policy.
"We're creating people that are working full time and cannot afford to live in Western Australia," United Workers Union public sector coordinator Kevin Sneddon said.

"Our members left their houses this morning with bills pinned to an empty fridge. Bills they haven't been able to pay, fridges that they haven't been able to fill." 

It's the second time unions have rallied this month to push for a better wages policy.

A crowd with masks on stands outside a hospital, some with signs held above their heads.
Unions are calling for a pay rise that meets the rising cost of living and inflation.
The stop work meeting is the second in a plan of four industrial actions, culminating in a strike outside Parliament House on August 17.

Premier chasing 'post-COVID' normality
Premier Mark McGowan was abrupt in his response to the stop work meeting, saying "people having a meeting, I don't think it's a problem".

He acknowledged the pressures facing the hospital system country-wide but gave little hope for health workers on the front lines of the pandemic.

"At the national cabinet meetings, it's the main subject of conversation: the huge pressure on our hospitals around Australia," he said.

The only advice he had was for "people who are close contacts or who are unwell to test, and if positive, to isolate", and "strongly encouraging" masks indoors.

Outside the health system, the Premier has encouraged a "post-COVID" life.

One man with a mask in a group of people with no masks.
Mark McGowan was the only one to wear mask while welcoming the Leeds United football team.
"We're open for business. We've had a very, very soft landing out of COVID," he added, as he welcomed football teams arriving in WA for Perth's Festival of International Football.

"We've put a huge effort into promoting the state for tourists, for getting people to come here and work, for sporting teams to come."

But amid Mr McGowan's push for a life beyond the pandemic, frontline health workers continue wading into daily new highs of hospital admissions with COVID, and record numbers of patients requiring intensive care.


Mr McGowan admitted case numbers were likely being heavily under-reported, but WA still saw 7,901 new cases today, the state's highest recorded figure in more than a month.

There are 457 people in hospital with COVID, with 22 in intensive care.

During the peak of the last Omicron wave in May, the state government pointed at the number of hospital and ICU admissions as the key figures to watch.

But as WA breaches all-time highs in those areas, the government has taken a relatively hands-off approach regarding additional public health measures.


United Workers Union public sector coordinator Kevin Sneddon says WA is at risk of losing its health workers.
Mr Sneddon said the state government's approach to "let it run" meant health workers would have to continue enduring the pressures of a system struggling to cope.   

"For the workers that are going to turn up today, this has been their life for the last two-and-a-half years," he said.

"Nobody who's here today has worked from home. All of these workers have turned up every day."

freediver wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2022 at 7:02am:


This must be the fabled compassion of the right wing

My wife is a nurse and makes decent money.  The real issue is support workers, who have always been poorly paid, COVID has just made these particular poorly paid workers a good story.  The issue is end stage capitalism squeezing and killing people

AusGeoff wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2022 at 8:04am:


Capitalism pays the minimum it can get away with.  It doesn't care about the person or value of the work.  Also, why should someone who works harder, but without working with sick people, also be asked to work and not afford to live?

FutureTheLeftWant wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2022 at 8:13am: