We met again with government representatives yesterday to continue discussions for your wages agreement.
Negotiations for your wages agreement continue, and so far the government has given 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. There are also some constructive discussions about minimum breaks, minimum engagement for casuals and overtime provisions.
But the government still has no wage offer for you or any idea of when you can expect one to be made. It’s almost like they don’t want to say.
While we had high expectations when the Premier invited HACSU and other unions to attend a meeting on Thursday, the meeting turned out to be disappointing again as they still didn’t give you any offer and all we walked away from the meeting with was a commitment to meet sometime next week.
We’ll plan on how we can build some pressure to get an offer on the table, and we need to prepare for the possibility that the government will give you an offer that nowhere meets your expectations.
For more information, please call 1300 880 032 or email assist@hacsu.org.au
No doubt you’ve been following the news about the $2000 offer for the COVID allowance the government has made to workers across the THS.
We’ve written to the government asking for this offer to cover all employees, including admin staff and other support workers and health workers in the communities who have also been dealing with COVID and deserve an allowance payment just as much as anyone else does.
We also asked that they offer the same amount as the Victorian government offered their healthcare workers.
On top of that, we still need to find out how this offer may be connected to your claims in bargaining and the wages negotiations more broadly.
We’ll update you as soon as we hear more from the government. If you have questions, please contact HACSU on 1300 880 032 or assist@hacsu.org.au
At the recent bargaining meeting for the AHP replacement agreement, we had discussions with government negotiators about workers’ claims for:
• Safe staffing and workload – we talked about how best to ensure workers aren’t being smashed with work, how to push the decisions on prioritisation to where they should be, and the possibility of adapting various workload models that would be specific to professions and output areas.
• Hours of work – we raised the fact that the various awards, HAHSA and TSSA, have different hours of work and different spans of hours for day workers
• Overtime – we talked about how a lot of AHPs are doing overtime and the necessity for stronger and clearer provisions for overtime in the AHP agreement.
• On call – we discussed the unfair and arbitrary nature of on call and call back and said that we believe no one in the AHP structure should be expected to be on call without remuneration
• Weekend work – we put forward the need for better and clearer provisions for weekend work and how day workers cannot be forced to work weekends
Most importantly, we told the negotiating team from the government that we expect to see an offer for a pay rise at the next meeting.
We will be out and about to catch up with the AHPs across the state to have a chat about the bargaining progress.
For more info, please contact HACSUassist on 1300 880 032 or at assist@hacsu.org.au
At recent meetings across Tasmania, union members at the Department of Communities Tasmania have unanimously endorsed the following resolution with respect to the abolition of DCT:
The state government’s announcement to abolish the Department of Communities Tasmania is not supported by workers. We seek a proper consultative process to commence immediately with the government to discuss the real issues facing our service and what can be and should be done to improve our services. Structural change does not amount to a service change. Members authorise HACSU and CPSU delegates to meet and direct further escalating industrial action. This could be up to and including stopping work.
We’ve been trying to get more relevant information about the structure of the new Department of Education, Children and Young People for months now, and whilst we haven’t got all answers we need from the government, we did find out a bit more:
• The new agency structure will be an interim structure in order to “keep things running” but, in the longer term, there will be a move for workers across the new agency to work more closely together and differently. What will this look like? At this stage, nobody knows.
• There could be a decision to integrate Child Safety and schools. Members, particularly those who have concerns about this, should note that as a possible intention.
• There will be significant work once the transition takes place for more “cultural alignment” across the new agency. The cultural alignment and restructure process is a body of work that will take up to three years.
• The Child Safety and Youth Justice functions that sit currently in DCT will report directly to the secretary of the new agency. A deputy secretary for these functions, along with a number of other functions that sit with the secretary currently, will not exist.
• Whilst deputy secretaries for other functional areas across the new agency exist, the current DCT executive directors will sit on the new agency executive.
We have been told that the new structure will be communicated to staff soon and will be discussed through the normal change management processes.
For more information or to join HACSU, contact us on 1300 880 032 or atassist@hacsu.org.au
Due to the chronic underinvestment in hospital infrastructure and frontline staff, the state’s health system has festered.
Our paramedics are the busiest in the nation, and they deal with the worst response times for the worst pay. Although they have been calling for change for years, the government has done nothing to fix the problems. The ramping crisis is getting worse, threatening the safety of workers and the community.
Meanwhile, the government continues to make a mockery of the negotiations for the next Ambulance wages agreement – it seems that an offer of a real-terms wage cut is on the horizon.
Paramedics are left with no options but to take industrial action across the state to call for attention to their serious safety concerns.
On 18 August and 1 September, paramedics in the south and north west held a snap Finish Work on Time rally at the local hospitals. The actions were well attended by many AT staff and plenty of other hospital staff and community members.
Today paramedics will take action again from 5.15–5.45pm at the LGH ramp. If you can, please come along to show your support.
By acting together and keeping the pressure on, we can make a difference and get the government to act not just on workers’ wages and conditions but also on seriously addressing ramping and safety issues.
Inform is your union’s Tasmanian magazine. The Winter 2022 issue is out now and it’s full of member and event photos, editorials, helpful info, campaign news and member benefits. See hundreds of photos from our annual Aged Care Day and Disability Workers’ Week celebrations and get to know some HACSU delegates.
Get the lowdown on superannuation, miserly big-profit employers, workplace wins, ongoing campaigns, failed employer bully tactics, your rights around unplanned leave and union representation, never-ending ambulance ramping and member-only holiday homes. Read about our fight for aged care, the dismantling of Communities Tasmania, our National Women’s Plan, why we always support NAIDOC Week and why HACSU’s Tim Jacobson sees glimpses of positive change in these COVID-tough times.
Thanks for the amazing work you’re doing to support our community.
If you have an urgent matter that needs to be addressed, you can call HACSUassist on 1300 880 032 or email us at assist@hacsu.org.au
You can contact HACSUassist between 8am and 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8am to 5pm on Fridays about anything in this newsletter or any other concern, however small you feel your issue might be.
Be strong, take care and stay safe - we’re proud to represent you.
