It was great to catch up with you last Friday to talk about your issues in the workplace. The message from you was clear: it’s time to value payroll workers.

We spoke at length about the workload pressures that you face. We know that it takes time to train new payroll workers and that additional positions need to be created to support them, so that they can help make workloads more manageable for everyone.

You told us that it’s not only about understaffing – it’s also about retention. Payroll services are losing workers faster than they can recruit because workers are flocking to other areas in the state service where they are paid more and have more manageable workloads. We need to think about ways to retain staff – whether it is by standing together to fight for additional pay, resources, or both.

Importantly, we also talked about whether your current band level captures the work that you’re actually doing. We agreed to establish a working group of payroll union members to investigate this issue – so we want you to have a think and put your hand up to be a part of this next time we meet.

We’ll write to the Department this week and let them know that enough is enough – payroll needs more resources immediately. We will set up another meeting in two weeks to let you know what they have to say and discuss what steps we can take if they’re not taking your issues seriously.

If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact us via HACSUassist on 1300 880 032 or via email at assist@hacsu.org.au