After months of negotiations, we’ve pushed I-MED to put forward a proposed package for your next agreement – and it’s a mixed bag.
First of all, I-MED’s wage offer for the three-year agreement stands at 3%, 3% and 2.5%.
With the cost of living continuing to spiral out of control with no end in sight, your bargaining team thinks that this wage offer does not cut the mustard. I-MED regularly boasts yearly revenue above $700 million and holds a 25% market share in medical imaging in Australia – it is not a boutique employer and should be rewarding you for your valuable work as healthcare professionals, especially during the pandemic. Unfortunately, their wage offer will leave you significantly below inflation and unable to keep up with soaring rent/interest rates.
Disappointingly, I-MED is also not willing to budge on increasing your entitlement to personal leave even though we have told them this is one of your most important issues.
However, we’ve made I-MED to agree to the following conditions:
• On call/standby allowances are to be paid the same across the north and south. This means that (for example) if you’re a southern staff member on call during the week, you would get paid $23 more.
• Increasing compassionate leave entitlement from 2 days to 3 days
• 2 non-cumulative “wellbeing” days to be taken each year for the purpose of looking after your mental health
• Increasing paid parental leave for the primary caregiver from 8 weeks to 12 weeks
• 3 days of paid pandemic leave
• A Higher Duties Allowance will be paid when acting in an absent employee’s position for two days (rather than three)
• Increasing the motor vehicle allowance
• Indexing the payment for travel to Queenstown and Smithton by 20%
• Introducing a $1000 per year allowance for elected Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs)
• All allowances to be indexed in line with the agreed pay rise
• Providing unpaid gender affirmation leave for up to 12 months
While not all our demands were met, several of these changes are positive improvements, especially the inclusion of wellbeing leave and equalised on-call allowances.
We successfully stopped I-MED from altering the wording of your agreement to make it easier for them to recall you to work “during an emergency”. This alongside them dropping their proposed gutting of your redundancy clause is only possible because of your HACSU bargaining team from across nuc med, sonography and reception standing staunch.
We will get out to talk to you more about the offer in writing – including issues about a new classification structure and the minimum break clause that we have been working on.