On May 26, the Western Australia branch of the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) received a fine of $350,000 for staging a strike rally outside the state parliament on November 25, last year.

The strike, which had the enthusiastic participation of thousands of nurses and midwifes, was part of a long-running – and still unresolved – dispute over pay and working conditions. It defied a no-strike order from the state’s Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) requested by the WA Labor government.

The nurses were demanding a five percent salary increase. The government has refused to budge from offering less.

Lawyers representing the IRC’s registrar calculated that the 3,590 individuals attending the rally breached the Commissioner’s order. At $10,000 per individual that could have potentially led to a fine of nearly $36 million for the union.

However, last month, negotiations between the IRC’s lawyers and the ANF reached an agreement on the lower figure, which was ratified by the Commission on May 26.

Additionally, ANF secretary Janet Reah was personally fined $10,000 for failing to appear before the commission on the day of the strike.

In announcing the fine, IRC Chief Commissioner Stephen Kenner lectured both the ANF and other unions about breaching future IRC orders. He described the ANF actions as “belligerent non-compliance.”

The size of the penalty is a major escalation of IRC and government anti-union behaviour in WA. In 2008, the Teachers Union defied a no-strike order and got fined less than the $10,000 meted out to Janet Reah.

WA Health Minister, Amber-Jade Sanderson, declined to comment on the fine, stating that it was a matter between the ANF and IRC, passing over the fact that the order was a product of a government request. Sanderson emphasised that discussions regarding dangerously low hospital staffing levels would not commence until the union accepted the government’s pay offer.

The IRC’s penalty is just one more twist in the long, drawn-out battle for union democracy and decent pay for WA nurses and midwifes.

The WA ANF is one of the few WA unions not affiliated with the ALP or with the WA unions peak body, Unions WA. At one point in the past the ANF leadership endorsed the Liberal Party in an election campaign, earning the union a place on the ALP’s enemies’ list.

The wave of militancy that has possessed the union’s members has been sparked by decades of ineffectual leadership coupled with the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. The Janet Reah leadership team was swept in last year by members looking for a fighting leadership.

However, the new executive’s behaviour has been contradictory. For example, on the day of the November 25 strike the ANF executive rejected other unions’ offers of support contingents, including from Unions WA.

The general spirit of support for the nurses was widespread and deeply felt at the time. Throwing away the possibility of solidarity opened up the danger of the ANF being singled out for attack, which has now occurred.

The ANF executive has also refused to properly represent the feelings of its members.

At an October 12, 2022 mass stop-work meeting, members voted overwhelmingly for a ten percent pay claim. Given the pay freeze that has been cutting government employee wages for years and WA inflation is running at seven percent, a ten percent rise would only just claw back lost wages.

However, the ANF executive simply abandoned the members’ demand and went for a five percent pay rise, coupled with a $3000 cost-of-living payment and improved patient-staff ratios. Their logic revolves around what can be argued as “fair” given the government’s intransigence.

The WA state budget, announced on May 10 contains a surplus of $3.3 billion. To rub salt into the wound the government’s Budget Review document announcing the surplus features a midwife on the front cover.