“The government’s message to the HSU is we will continue to work respectfully with you to ensure fair pay and conditions for our highly valued and extremely appreciated health workers.”

About 20,000 workers including ambulance officers, cleaning, allied health, administration, security and catering staff are expected to take part in stop-work meetings of at least four hours at every health facility in NSW on Thursday.

Mr Hayes apologised for the disruption to services that would inconvenience the public but not deny access to emergency care.

“We’ve never done this before,” he said. “And we do it with respect to the government’s inaction and inability to respond or to actually deal with the health workers who dealt with COVID.

“We have done everything we can to work with government to get outcomes for our members and their communities,” Mr Hayes said.

“I see Mr Minns is nearly level pegging with Mr Perrottet, so I think the dynamics of politics in NSW is changed, and we are going to exploit that,” he said.

NSW Health said all Local Health Districts and NSW Ambulance would have plans in place to minimise disruption or delays from Thursday’s planned industrial action “and to ensure people in need of emergency care continue to receive it”.

Tess Oxley, 38, a paramedic of 12 years who works in Campbelltown, said her colleagues routinely discuss career options because of their frustration with poor pay and conditions.

“If we get a break, we spend it talking about what alternate career options are out there for us,” she said. “We’ve worked harder than we’ve ever worked. We’ve worked longer than we’ve ever worked. We are exhausted.

“Instead of feeling like we’ve been appreciated, everything seems just like it’s getting harder, including getting a bit of respect for what we’re doing. We’ve had colleagues who caught COVID on the job and who’ve ended up on respirators and whose careers are over.”

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Hospital cleaner and HSU delegate Dolly Borg, who received a 0.3 per cent pay rise two years ago which gave her an extra $1.70 per week, said she and her colleagues were struggling to keep up with increasing living expenses and felt like they were being taken for granted.

“The government doesn’t care about us — the politicians don’t care about us. We are nothing at the end of the day,” she said.

“Mentally, you go in every day and you think, ‘Can I do this again?’ but when you see the patients, you say, ‘I have to.’ But you get to a stage where you say, ‘No, I can’t do this any more. I have to go.’ ”

Mr Minns said if Labor won the state election next March, he would negotiate with public sector workers over pay and conditions and ensure public sector wages kept pace with inflation. “That means paying a lot more than 2.5 per cent,” he said. “At the end of the day, you have to have a decent conversation with your own workforce.”

Mr Hazzard said NSW Labor had displayed a “two bob each way” approach by not committing to the HSU’s pay rise request while criticising the government.

NSW Health urged patients with non-urgent conditions to keep emergency departments and ambulances free for emergencies on Thursday and to seek alternative care from a GP, a pharmacist, or a registered nurse available at HealthDirect on 1800 022 222.

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