WHAT: Health workers go on strike at seven major Adelaide hospitals about imposition of car parking and public transport fees.

WHEN, WHERE:

6.55am for 7.15am: Workers walk off at major hospitals including Flinders Medical Centre, where workers board a bus leaving from the hospital front lawns on Flinders Drive at 7.15am sharp.

7.35am for 7.45am: Workers gather at 7.45am at Hindmarsh Square in front of the Department for Health and Wellbeing Office – Citi Centre Building, 11 Hindmarsh Square.

WHO: Low-paid health workers will speak about the impacts they face with the imposition of car parking fees as more than 100 workers stage a protest.

Essential health workers are taking strike action across major Adelaide hospitals today after the SA Government’s failure to listen to serious concerns about the introduction of hospital car parking and public transport fees.

“These workers are some of the state’s lowest paid health workers – including hospital cleaners, orderlies, catering attendants and sterilisation technicians – who will be slugged up to $1300 a year just to be able to get to work,” Paul  Blackmore, Public Sector Co-ordinator, United Workers Union, said today.

“Workers have raised their concerns about the fees but they continue to be dismissed, with SA Health pushing ahead with plans to impose fees that will be devastating to workers.

“For a hospital cleaner who is making $27 an hour, imposing parking fees of $1300 is the equivalent of a pay cut of more than 2 per cent.

“That leaves them going even further backward when it’s the lowest-paid that also really feel the effects of inflation now standing at more than 6 per cent annually.

“We are asking the SA Government: show some understanding of cost-of-living pressures facing these workers and end the imposition of these fees.

“Workers are reporting that with sky-high petrol prices, grocery bills and energy costs, there is no room for them to move on this, and that’s why they are forced to take strike action.”

Details

Workers will walk off the job for two hours at seven major Adelaide hospitals from 7am to 9am:

• Royal Adelaide Hospital
• Queen Elizabeth Hospital
• Repat Hospital
• Flinders Medical Centre
• Noarlunga Hospital
• Women’s and Children’s
• Lyell McEwin Hospital