When we met with government representatives again last week they tabled their management log of claims, so the whole meeting was basically talking through that claim. It’s disappointing there’s still no wage offer on the table - they say they don’t know the cost of the whole package, an unacceptable position as they’ve had your log of claims for more than 6 months.

They want a new classification structure based on underlying higher education qualifications, which isn’t a bad concept that does exist elsewhere, but it’ll be extremely hard to transition existing classifications to that structure. The new structure is also likely to devalue some roles compared to others, and HACSU isn’t in the business of agreeing to pay reductions for members, and we have major concerns about how new roles will be introduced.

They’re coming for your rosters and hours of work, and it’s clear they want to remove the 4x4 roster pattern, 14-hour shifts (replace 10x2/14x2 with 12x4) and get rid of composite pay. We raised concerns about the reliance on fatigue as the reason to remove 14-hour shifts as working 46-48 hours over 4 days still occurs with their alternate method, so fatigue isn’t genuinely reduced - it’s also not a one size fits all solution.

No tangible replacements are provided and they’re still rejecting the introduction of fair calculations of hours and shift penalties for casual workers.

The government has said on multiple occasions they ‘agree in principle’, and have spruiked this to you, but that doesn’t mean we’re agreeing as there’s absolutely no information about agreed clauses or the actual scope of what they agree to or don’t.

We’ll be out to talk to you in the next couple of weeks but it’s likely we need to discuss what pressure we can put on the government to make a serious and reasonable offer and make it soon.