WEST Australian nurses will go on strike for 24 hours if the government does not offer them a 20 per cent pay increase over three years by Monday, the Australian Nurses Federation says.
The demand is up from 12.75 per cent, which the nurses said previously they would be prepared to accept.
The nurses' union voted on Friday to keep one in five beds closed at hospitals over the weekend and to wait until Monday to decide if they should take industrial action over wages and conditions.
The union also wants nurses to stop having to perform menial tasks normally done by orderlies and cleaners, and objects to big hikes in parking fees at hospitals.
ANF state secretary Mark Olson told a mass meeting of 1200 nurses the atmosphere of his meeting earlier on Friday with Health Department director-general Kim Snowball was "toxic" and said the health boss had told him to "f*** off".
But a spokeswoman for Mr Snowball said the department boss would not describe their meeting as heated and he did not swear.
"Absolutely at no point did he tell him to 'eff-off' or anything else like that," she told AAP.
Mr Snowball issued a statement saying he had handed a letter from Health Minister Kim Hames to Mr Olson and reiterated that he was unable to make a binding offer during the caretaker period ahead of the March 9 state election.
"(But) we are able to negotiate with the ANF to reach a position that we could present to an incoming government after the election," Mr Snowball said.
"I asked Mr Olson to carefully consider the letter, which I believe provides a way forward to establish a clear wages offer soon after the election."
Mr Snowball said he told Mr Olson the department was prepared not to dock the wages of nurses who attended Friday's meeting.
Earlier, Premier Colin Barnett agreed to meet with the union leader in a last-ditch effort to avoid a mass strike.
After saying little on the matter for several weeks, Mr Barnett said he would meet with Mr Olson if it would help avert strike action.
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