Negotiations with VHIA and DHS over our log of claims have finally broken down. Our current agreement expired on Sunday 30 September 2007 and yesterday was the anniversary of your last pay increase. You should therefore have had your next increase from this pay period. 

However because of the intransigence of the employers and Government we do not even have an operative date for the next increase. By stalling the DHS is picking the pockets of all members. Their response to all the key areas of our claim is NO, NO, and NO!  

• NO to negotiating our wage claim for 18% over 3 years. They will not move beyond the mantra of 3.25% pa over 5 years with only 2.5% to be funded by Govt. The rest will have to be found by health services. This is likely to mean more staff cuts & workload increases.
• NO to allowing members to share in the massive increases in productivity which health workers have delivered over the last 3 years;
• NO to providing adequate staffing levels to cover training and leave entitlements and to reduce on-call and rostered overtime. The VHIA says that there is no risk to patients through understaffing!
• NO to giving members the same maternity leave entitlement as public servants have had for more than 20 years. We have 8 weeks paid leave, public servants have 14.
• NO to creating fairer access to LSL by including periods of full and part-time service; excluding public holidays; and allowing access to sick leave when on long service leave.
• NO to paid leave for members who volunteer as CFA firefighters or SES workers. The Government expects that people will not only put their lives on the line for their communities but should also pay for the “privilege”. Given that bush fires are expected to increase this summer, this attitude seems particularly bloody-minded;
• NO to meeting the costs of police checks and PI insurance where they are a requirement of employment. VHIA says that employers should not have to pay because they are a requirement of employment (???).
• NO to giving psychologists private practice rights even though psychiatrists have had them for many years;
• NO to paying an histology cut-up allowance to scientists even though such allowances are common in private pathology. The VHIA agrees that additional skills are required to do this work but says that it is a privilege for scientists to be allowed to do it, so why should the employers pay.