Blacktown workers hit Domain rally

BY CALLAN LAWRENCE
12 Sep, 2011

AN estimated crowd of 30,000-plus public sector employees from Blacktown and around the state rallied in Sydney on Thursday to condemn the government’s industrial relations reform.

The mass strike dubbed the “day of action” and “day of chaos” by union leaders was just the beginning of a long campaign to fight the reform, they said.

Blacktown Hospital nurse Sue Walker said the conditions imposed on nurses by the Premier Barry O’Farrell were cuts to a public health sector that was already struggling.

“I have nursed for 40 years,” she said, “and it is worse than it has ever been (in hospitals).”

Another nurse from Blacktown, Maureen Buckley, said nurses had fought long and hard for conditions that the government had now taken off them.

The nurses marched with teachers, firefighters, police, prison officers and public servants from The Domain, down Macquarie Street and past Parliament House with a message for the Premier.

“We’re here to protect our rights,” Rooty Hill High School teacher Janelle Roberts said, “to make sure we get paid equally and to make sure that the class rooms have decent sized numbers.”

If those conditions weren’t met, she said, teachers would walk out the door and the profession would not be attractive to a new generation.

At the heart of the concerns held by public sector workers is the legislated 2.5 per cent cap on wage increase, which is below the estimated 3.6 per cent rise in inflation.

The legislation linked pay increases above 2.5 per cent to productivity gains made by cost cutting and increased efficiency.

It also cuts the independent Industrial Relations Commission out of negotiations with unions for employee conditions.

President of the Fire Brigade Employees Union Darin Sullivan said there was a conflict of interest with the employer legislating laws to restrict wages, while being responsible for negotiating working conditions.

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