Southern Riverina nurses strike for better pay in Albury

WATCH: Southern Riverina nurses strike for better pay in Albury

Transcript

00:00Nurses from across the Southern Riverina have held their second strike in two weeks,

00:05with this one lasting 24 hours.

00:08Here we go again, we're fed up, we're frustrated, we're angry, we don't want to be here.

00:14The union is demanding a 15% pay rise,

00:17while the NSW government offered an interim 3% increase back paid to July 1

00:22on the condition that the union halted its strike action.

00:26We've rejected that incredibly insulting 3% pay rise

00:29because we are so far behind and we know that they're just not serious about,

00:34well up until this point they haven't been serious about meeting us on our claim.

00:39We know that grad nurse in Queensland gets 18% more per hour

00:43than an equivalent nurse in NSW,

00:45so we know that 3% is not only completely inadequate,

00:48it's actually just frankly downright insulting.

00:50Aubrey Wodonga Health Chief Executive Bill Appleby

00:53said the strike would delay surgeries for up to 10 patients.

00:57It's obviously regrettable that patients are having surgeries delayed,

01:00but the fact is that over the last 12 months

01:0311.5% of planned surgeries have been delayed

01:06because the hospital has delayed those surgeries.