We met again with government representatives yesterday to continue discussions for your wages agreement and, again, there were some good discussions and some positive developments. The government gave in-principle agreement to a couple of your claims, including dealing better with trauma, critical incidents and occupational violence and some further clarification for aboriginal workers.

But disappointingly, they still have no wage offer for you or any idea of when you can expect one to be made. The government representatives continue to say that they will reconcile what everything will cost at the end of the process, and offer an “entire package” to workers.

We’ve asked what the parameters of the package are and what the figure is in total, and we’ve even asked for just a ballpark figure for at least the last six weeks, but still, we get nothing. It’s almost like they don’t want to say.

We still have more questions than answers about the $2000 COVID payment offer ,and we still have no answers on how that may be connected to your claims and the wages negotiations more broadly.

It’s time your employer treated you with respect and at least gave you the information about what they intend to do about your wages agreement.

It’s time that the government provide some relief to workers and come up with a plan on how to address the issues that have been ignored for over a decade.

The Premier has invited HACSU and other unions to attend a meeting on Thursday. The Head of the State Service and other senior government officials will be there too. We hope there will be some better news.

We’ll be out to see you in the next few weeks to plan on how we can build some pressure to get an offer on the table.

For more information or to join HACSU, please call 1300 880 032 or email assist@hacsu.org.au