Everything we are fighting for as a union, whether local or state-wide, boils down to four things:

• Job Security
• Fairer Conditions
• Adequate Resourcing
• Professional wages

NSWA hiring permanent-part time grads is an attempt to cover up an abysmal lack of resources with insecure work.

Part-time grads will be forced onto half the base pay of a full-timer and be used as cheap labour so NSWA doesn’t have to pay overtime to existing staff. Brought in to plug holes in rosters the Service refuses to maintain, these workers will effectively be used as casuals to fill ad hoc shifts outside the regular 4x5 roster pattern.

NSWA refuses to fight with ADHSU members for extra funding to increase Minimum Operating Levels to 2021 standards. Instead, they are choosing the exploitation of young workers for “roster flexibility” (again, their words not ours).

Our bans worked to get a proposal document, but not to stop the proposal. We need to go bigger and visibly oppose this proposal to stand up for our future colleagues and demand adequate resources.

On the 26th of February we will be holding a state-wide day of action. This will take place in the form of a uniform ban. Members are asked to wear only their undershirt on station and a yellow vest with a union campaign paper insert while on a job. This includes members in Control and operational managers.

If any member is stood down for not wearing uniform as a part of the industrial action, this will trigger everyone who is also participating in the action to stand down too.

We will escalate action as required.