Allied health staff launch case over 'impossible' wages

Résumé détaillé

Around 27,000 allied health workers will be affected by the outcome of a landmark industrial relations case that calls for a 20 per cent pay boost.

Julie Williams has been a speech pathologist in the NSW public health system for 36 years.

But under her current agreement, she says she is paid about the same as some fresh graduates working in private practice.

The chronic undervaluing of her colleagues meant they had been leaving the public system in droves, she said, putting even more pressure on the workforce.

“The cost of living is making it impossible for them to stay here,” the head of speech pathology at the Hastings Macleay Clinical Network told AAP.

Ms Williams, who is based in Port Macquarie, is one of the 27,000 allied health professionals across the state being represented in a case that begins in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission on Wednesday.

The Health Services Union is pushing for a 20 per cent pay rise for allied health workers across 40 professions within NSW Health.

It is also pushing for a major shift in the conditions, structures and classifications of allied health workers to reflect how their roles have changed over time, with many now qualified to do work previously done only by doctors.

Ms Williams said she and her colleagues had undertaken extra study to perform nasendoscopies - a procedure that involves a camera being inserted into a patient's nose - which was previously done by ear, nose and throat specialists.

This meant patients spent less time in hospital and less time on specialist waitlists, saving the government money.

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