Your HACSU bargaining team met with government representatives today for what we thought were meant to be serious negotiations about the current issues facing AHPs.

We arrived hopeful to the meeting – after all, the government had four weeks to consider the revised position you endorsed earlier this year – and we hoped by now they’d be making an improved offer.

But unfortunately, instead of fixing the mess they’ve made the government wanted to go over old ground and act like they didn’t know how bad things are for you.

We made it clear that enough is enough, because AHPs cannot go any longer with the massive recruitment and retention issues that are impacting their services. We told them they needed to move on your wages to make them more competitive with other states, and improve your conditions, including fixing Christmas leave to ensure all AHPs get at least three days of additional leave across the board.

In the end they committed to get back to us by Monday next week, and we hope that any new offer will be a genuine one that helps ease some of the problems you’re experiencing.

We let them know that only a much-improved offer, like what you asked for, will avert the planned stop work rallies from going ahead – because this has gone on way too long.

So, please continue to encourage your colleagues to attend the stop work rallies around the state. It’s really important to get a big turn out so we can send a strong message to the government: allied health professionals need to be treated with respect.

We will update you once we have a response from them. We look forward to seeing you soon at one of the stop work rallies soon!

If you have any further questions, or you’d like some more information, make sure you get in touch with us on HACSUassist at 1300 880 032 or via email on assist@hacsu.org.au