COMMUNITY HEALTH MEMBERS PAY DEAL UPDATE

As you know, the Health Workers Union has been negotiating with your employer’s representative, the Victorian Health Industry Association (VHIA), to secure a new Community Health Services Agreement for our members.

This new Agreement will determine your pay and conditions for the next four years.

The Health Workers Union has been pushing for pay increase parity with public health workers. This has been the case with previous Community Health Agreements negotiated.

The good news is that after our latest round of negotiations, an in-principle deal has now been reached.

A new, in-principle pay deal includes:

• Base annual pay increases to wages and allowances as follows:
  • 3% increase on 1 July 2022;
  • 3% increase on 1 July 2023;
  • 2.5% increase on 1 July 2024; and
  • 2.5% increase on 1 July 2025.
• Additional Wage Uplifts to Dental Assistants to address recruitment and retention.These additional payments to Dental Assistants, who are highly unionised, are outlined in Appendix C (See attachment in link below). These uplifts include a 5% increase on 1 July 2022; a 5% increase on 1 July 2023; a 5% increase on 1 July 2024; and a 2.5% increase on 1 July 2025.
• Translation of Clerical to Admin to deliiver actual increases for current Clerical Workers more than the base increases. (See Appendix B in attachment in link below).
• A four-year Agreement with a nominal expiry date of 30 June 2026.
• An ‘hours of work’ clause to provide greater rostering flexibility
• Removal of references to ‘broken shifts’
• A minimum 1-hour payment at relevant overtime rate where an on-call employee is disturbed but can resolve the matter appropriately without the need for returning to facility.
• Transition to access long-service leave from 15 years to 10 years in 2022; 9 years from 2023; 8 years from 2025; and 7 years from 2026.
• Increase non-primary carer paid component from 1 week to 2 weeks.
• Family violence leave of 20 days per year.
• Alignment of Dental Assistant terms and conditions with those under Health & Allied Service, this includes higher Personal/Carer Leave Accrual.

Thanks to all Community Health HWU Delegates and HWU Members that have helped shape this new in-principle pay deal. Your work throughout our consultation phase has been invaluable.

The Health Workers Union has worked hard to deliver a strong outcome for our Community Health HWU members. We believe our in-principle agreement, which delivers pay parity outcomes with public health workers, is the best possible outcome that can be achieved for our members in the current economic climate.

Of course, any new Agreement would first need to be endorsed by all affected Community Health workers. Once this happens, and the Fair Work Commission can ratify the new Agreement, including the benefits such as pay rises, can flow on to affected workers.

Of course, we want feedback from all our HWU Community Health members. Please email any questions, thoughts or suggestions to info@hwu.org.au or call the HWU on (03) 9341 3300.

To view a copy of the Community Health Head of Agreement document, simply click on the link below:

Community Health Heads of Agreement