Last-ditch nurse pitch hits the wall

The state government doesn’t know how much it will cost to apply the nurse-to-patient ratios it promised the nursing union in an 11th-hour bid to avoid industrial action.

Overnight, the government promised in-principle support to the Australian Nursing Federation’s calls for a ratio of four patients per nurse to ease workload pressure.

But today, the state government was unable to confirm the costings for the promise when asked by Business News.

Instead, it will task WA Health to engage a consultant to figure out the details of implementing a 1:4 ratio over the next three years, which has been at the centre of an ongoing campaign by the ANF.

The union and the state government have been sparring for weeks over the wages deal, with the ANF pushing for an increase of 10 per cent a year for two years and the government standing firm on 3 per cent and a one-off $3,000 payment.

With threats of imminent industrial action, including a ban on double shifts and overtime and rolling strikes across the state's hospitals, the state government issued a fresh deal overnight with a provision for the ratio rostering requested.

During a press conference this morning, Mr McGowan insisted the state would not be budging on pay and called on the union to abandon its planned industrial action. 

The state has already changed its public sector pay offer three times, which the union has deemed insufficient given the inflation rate in WA has hit 7.6 per cent. 

“We have put on the table what the Nurses’ Union has been asking for,” he said. 

“We have negotiated an offer and are now asking the union to put to their membership that there is no need for this now. 

“We have listened to their concerns and are providing the thing that they most wanted.

“There’s no need for industrial action, there’s no need. 

“That’s our final offer on pay."

Mr McGowan stressed that the offer was consistent with that handed to other public sector workers and exceeded that handed to nurses in NSW and Victoria. 

He also rejected claims the state’s health system was insufficiently supported, highlighting the government had poured $5.7 billion additional dollars into the system over the past two budgets and hired 1,400 additional nurses and 400 additional doctors over the past year. 

“We fund the system better than any state in Australia per capita easily,” he said.

“The workforce has been successful in what it has asked for. 

“The entirety of our offer is now about $3.5 billion across the workforce - and most of the workforce has accepted that."

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson encouraged the ANF to return to the bargaining table, insisting that was where the best deal for the workforce would be struck. 

She reiterated that the government was committed to working with the union to implement the ratios and establish what they may look like across the state's health system.

But ANF WA chief executive Mark Olson told 6PR the union was only informed of the offer via the media, receiving correspondence 30 minutes later.

The ANF’s WA secretary, Janet Reah, had delayed a meeting with Minister Sanderson by 24 hours to allow for the union’s election today, but the government pushed ahead.

“The state government then gives that offer to The West Australian last night at 8pm and then at 8:30pm, half an hour after the offer has been posted ... we receive a copy of the offer," Mr Olson told 6PR.

“We’ve since given that to our members; and they’re not happy.

“The government did that to get a front page saying they’re offering ratios; but they’re not.

“The ratios aren’t mandatory, they’re not transparent; it’s a leaflet.

“It doesn't pass the pub test.”

Opposition health spokesperson Libby Mettam accused Ms Sanderson of putting "politics ahead of patients' lives" and likened the new deal to an empty promise.

“This so-called offer to introduce nurse/midwife to patient ratios in 2025 if they can find the staff is a plan for a plan and is an insult to the frontline health workers that are at breaking point right now,” Ms Mettam said.

“It’s an insincere offer that lacks any urgency to fix the healthcare crisis happening in our health system, which is hanging by a thread thanks to a workforce that is continuing to prop it up.

“Nurses and midwives have consistently been asked to do overtime and double shifts to ensure patients are cared for, but they are burnt out and don’t see a possible solution in three years’ time as the answer."

More than 2,000 nurses and midwives threatened the state with industrial action at a rally last week, voting to double the pay claim to 20 per cent over two years.

Mr Olson said the union had been asking for the government to implement nurse-to-patient ratios for the past 20 years, but has been lobbying since at least July.