Tasmania's public sector wage dispute is reaching a tipping point, with the Health Minister threatening to dock hospital workers' pay and bring in contract labour when industrial action escalates.
Hospital workers say they are escalating their industrial action after rejecting the latest pay offer
Hospital workers who are part of the Health and Community Services Union , which includes hospital aides, cleaners and domestic service staff, have begun escalating industrial action including cutting back on removing dirty linen and rubbish from wards, sterilising trays and cleaning public toilets. "The union action is designed potentially to close beds, and I think they would close, or at least be significantly slowed down, and it will have an impact."
"We will do what we need to do. I hope it doesn't come to that, because we shouldn't have to, but what we will always do is put the needs of patients first."HACSU assistant secretary Robbie Moore compared the Minister's stance to the bitterness surrounding
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