When Omicron Goes Away In Australia, Health Workers Go On Strike Asking For A Salary Increase, 'Tired, Tired, Tired'

Illustration- COVID-19 nurse resting (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Thousands of nurses in Australia's most populous state left their jobs on Tuesday for the first time in nearly a decade. They started a strike for 24 hours.

The move followed the failure of talks with the government to address staff shortages and set salary increases.

Nurses and midwives across the state of New South Wales (NSW) violated a last-minute order by the state's industrial relations commission to call off a strike it said could endanger public health.

Nurses gathered in front of the state parliament in Sydney and held placards reading “Tired, tired, tired and tired”, “Need more nurses now” and “Stop telling us to deal with it”.

Antara quoted Reuters as writing, nurses had demanded a salary increase of more than 2.5 percent and a better nurse-patient ratio.

The strike will last all day and include staff from more than 150 hospitals across the state.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was "unfortunate" and "disappointing" that nurses insisted on a strike.

Hazzard told radio station 2GB that the government was looking for a solution but said some suggested changing the nurse-patient ratio would cost "a billion dollars".

The emergence of Omicron, a highly contagious variant in Australia in late November, triggered a spike in COVID-19 infections and overwhelmed hospitals, Tuesday 15 February.

There are about 2.6 million confirmed cases overall in the country

The number of new cases has tended to be lower in recent days. Only 23,000 new cases were reported as of Tuesday (15/2) afternoon, while hospitalization cases fell to around 3,000 cases from a peak of 5,400 cases three weeks ago.

Local officials recorded 46 new deaths, bringing the total during the pandemic to 4,664.