In a bid to raise concerns for a pay hike, nurses of five hospitals across Sydney will sit for 24-hour long strike on Tuesday. The to-be affected hospitals include Minchinbury Community Hospital at Mount Druitt, President Private Hospital at Kirrawee, Delmar Private Hospital at Dee Why, and Manly Waters Private Hospital at Manly and Eastern Suburbs Private Hospital at Randwick.

It’s being claimed that nurses are being paid almost 10 to 12 % less than other hospitals and that’s the reason that such a major strike has been called on by a large number of hospitals in a single go.

As part of the 24-hour strike, the Macquarie Hospital Services nurses had marched for seeking a respectable salary. Currently, the Macquarie nurses are under no agreement whatsoever and hence, are paid below par than their counterparts at other private and public hospitals.

“To date Macquarie Hospital Services is only offering unconditional pay rises of 3.5 percent in year one and then two percent per year in the following two years”, NSW Nurses Association General Secretary Brett Holmes said. “Such an offer doesn't even match current and predicted cost of living increases, let alone deal with the substandard rates already paid at Macquarie Hospital Services”.