🟠 Wage wars and a business blaze

Also including: National Australia Bank's closure of the Knox Data Centre

Author

Matthew Sims
January 23, 2026

⏱️ The 109th edition of our newsletter is a seven-minute read.

Hi there 👋 

Matthew Sims here, your reporter at the Eastern Melburnian.

🙅 Have you ever imagined what would happen if every worker in Melbourne’s hospitals decided to just stop doing their jobs? A number of public hospitals don’t have to imagine, as work bans are seeing piles of dishes pile up, infectious rubbish left uncollected and theatre technicians only completing urgent operations.

🪧 It’s all part of the Health Workers Union’s ongoing strike action, which is demanding the State Government come to the table in delivering a six percent wage rise for its workers, including cooks and cleaners.

📞 I spoke with Maroondah Hospital Patient Services Assistant Tabatha Walters earlier this week, who was one of thousands of workers who marched in Melbourne on Tuesday. She told me it felt wrong to refuse to do work, but she believed it was necessary to make the government pay attention and honour the union’s demands.

🤞 Hopefully, the union and the State Government can come to a compromise soon, so that the level of care can return to normal across Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

Today we’re covering:

  • Why local hospital workers are calling for a six percent wage rise from the State Government;

  • A fire that tore through a $2 shop and damaged adjoining businesses at Doncaster East’s Tunstall Square Shopping Centre on Tuesday night.

“It's frustrating to know that the government doesn’t care. We're not getting paid for what we do and not looked upon as useful. Without us, that hospital does not run.”

Maroondah Hospital Patient Services Assistant Tabatha Walters

WHAT’S ON 🎟️

📰 THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES

As a Patient Services Assistant at Eastern Health’s Maroondah Hospital in Ringwood, Tabatha Walters changes clinical pads and cleans rubbish and bedding every day.

However, since last Wednesday, she and her colleagues have been refusing to carry out some of these tasks, as part of escalating strike action pushing for fairer pay.

Armed with placards, including many calling out state Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas for being “missing” from negotiations for 42 days, thousands of employees from more than 80 healthcare services took to the CBD’s main thoroughfares throughout Tuesday afternoon.

The group of workers walked off work on Tuesday, before congregating outside the Victorian Trades Hall Council and then marching to the Premier’s office.

The industrial action aimed to complement ongoing work bans, which include workers closing one in every four hospital beds and refusing to clean non-clinical areas. It will remain in place until Sunday, February 1.

The protest was the latest attempt to strike a deal with the State Government, after their enterprise bargaining agreement with the State Government expired in July 2024.

Since then, the Health Workers Union (HWU) has rejected two wage offers, including an increase of 3.75 percent a year over the next two-and-a-half years, as both were below the rate of inflation.

Healthcare worker Tabatha Walters said she still loved her job, 14 years after joining the team at Maroondah Hospital and about 25 years after joining the healthcare sector.

“You get to help people and make a difference,” Walters told the Eastern Melburnian, but mentioned she and her colleagues felt “undervalued”, arguing their current pay and offers from the state government did not meet the mark.

“It's frustrating to know that the government doesn’t care,” said Walters. “We're not getting paid for what we do and not looked upon as useful. Without us, that hospital does not run.”

Walters said having to follow work bans, including not cleaning up potentially infectious rubbish, was the last-ditch effort to get the government to come to the table.

“You feel like you're not doing your job,” said Walters. “We have to do this, we've come to a stage where we have no choice but to join in and stand together. We will escalate if they don't come to the party.”

Premier Jacinta Allan told the AAP she wanted the "good faith" negotiations to be resolved "as soon as possible" to ensure patient care was not impacted.

The owners of a gift shop, butcher and bakery at the Tunstall Square Shopping Centre in Doncaster East are surveying the damage from a blaze that tore through a $2 shop and damaged adjoining businesses last night.

What happened: Fire Rescue Victoria crews arrived on scene at about 9pm on Tuesday, later escalating the response due to the presence of flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the rear of the building.

After donning breathing apparatus and using hose lines, firefighters fought the fire from both inside and outside the shop.

Flames and smoke damage impacted adjoining businesses, including Bakers Delight and the Mauro Brothers Butcher Shop.

Victoria Police and Ambulance Victoria were also on-scene to assist.

A total of 50 firefighters worked to control the blaze across a number of units, including seven pumpers, one rescue unit and one aerial unit.

A spokesperson for Victoria Police said there “doesn’t appear to be any links” to other incidents.

SEEN THIS WEEK

NAB announces Knox Data Centre closure, moving 270 employees to other office locations

National Australia Bank has announced it will shut down its Knox Data Centre in Wantirna.

The Eastern Melburnian understands the 270 workers were notified last June of NAB’s intention to sell the property.

All employees have been notified of alternative working arrangements and will be supported as they relocate to other NAB locations.

Located at 122 Lewis Road in Wantirna South, a commercial real estate firm has been seeking bids for the 31,677 square-metre block, with the listing still live.

Are you one of the employees set to make a move to a new location? Please reach out to us at [email protected]

Thanks for catching up with us this week at the Eastern Melburnian. We hope you enjoyed this issue.

Cheers,

Matthew