More than 5000 workers have staged an unprecedented 24-hour strike, warning they are being pushed to the brink as pay talks with the state government stall.
Thousands of Victorian allied health professionals have walked off the job in an unprecedented 24-hour strike, escalating a long-running pay dispute with the state government and triggering disruptions across public hospitals.
Radiographers, sonographers, physiotherapists, podiatrists, speech pathologists, social workers, psychologists, medical scientists and pharmacists joined the industrial action on Tuesday after enterprise bargaining negotiations stalled.
The strike, believed to be the first 24-hour walkout by Victorian allied health professionals, came as unions sought a 36.18% wage increase over three years under a new Public Sector Enterprise Agreement covering more than 13,000 workers.
Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association (VAHPA) executive officer Andrew Hewat said at least 5000 workers had participated in the strike statewide, including around 3000 who marched through Melbourne’s CBD to State Parliament.
“There’d be at least 5000 that have walked off today for 24 hours,” Mr Hewat told Health Services Daily.
He said the offer from the state government had fallen well short of the mark and members were angry.
“They’re fed up, they’re sick and tired, and they’re getting smashed in the workplace,” he said.
The industrial action was supported by branches of the Health Services Union, including VAHPA, the Medical Scientists Association of Victoria, the Victorian Psychologists Association and the Association of Hospital Pharmacists.
Mr Hewat said the scale of participation reflected growing frustration among allied health professionals who felt undervalued despite playing a critical role in patient care.
“This is not something that’s natural to our members – they’re carers by nature,” he said.
“Taking industrial action, and especially taking strike action, is just not something that they’re used to doing.
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“The fact that they were willing to step up just sends that message that they really are at breaking point and that they were left with no choice.”
While acknowledging the disruption caused by the walkout, Mr Hewat said emergency and critical care services had been protected throughout the action.
“The last thing they want to do is disrupt patients,” he said.
“But they know that if we don’t make this statement, then ultimately the situation is not going to improve, and it’ll have an ongoing escalating impact on patients in terms of being able to deliver the health services that we need.”
The union argues Victorian allied health salaries have fallen behind interstate counterparts and says career progression structures also require reform.
Mr Hewat said hospital managers had spent much of Monday scrambling to manage service disruptions, despite receiving seven days’ notice of the strike.
“We spent a lot of time on the phone yesterday with management from different hospitals who were scrambling at the last minute to try and work out how to cope with what was happening today,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure the government’s getting feedback from the health services saying, ‘you need to fix this’.”
Although negotiations remain ongoing, Mr Hewat warned further industrial action remained a possibility if a significantly improved offer was not forthcoming.
“The ball’s in the government’s court,” he said.
“If they don’t come back to us with another offer, and it has to be substantially better than the one they’ve provided so far, then there’s an appetite there from our members to escalate.”
Potential future actions could include rolling stoppages, half-day strikes or another 24-hour walkout, although no further strike dates have been announced.
A Victorian government spokesperson told the ABC that negotiations between the parties were continuing in good faith.