Health Professionals

Our health workforce is the backbone of community healthcare, ensuring people stay healthy and out of hospitals. But outdated NSW Health Awards have led to overworked and burned-out health workers. There are thousands of vacancies across NSW Health. There is a mass exodus of workers to other states or the private sector. The system is broken.

Over the coming months HSU members will be at the forefront of reforming all NSW Health Awards.

Right now Health Professionals are coming together in member-led Health Professional Committees to decide what Award negotiations will look like for those Awards. There are five key demands:

Rates of pay that value the complexity of professional work
Improved Career Progression
Safe workloads and staffing
CPD allowances and leave
Better conditions of work

This October, 80 dedicated HSU delegates attended a meeting with representatives from the NSW Government, to make it clear we demand reform.

The Government has said it will prioritise Award reform – but no firm dates have been given. This isn’t good enough. There are thousands of vacancies across health, and we continue to see workers leave.

There are changes desperately needed across hundreds of different classifications. There are core conditions that affect everyone – leave, superannuation, flexible work, regrading, the list goes on.

And we are ready for change.

HSU Industrial Advisory Committees

The HSU Industrial Advisory Committees are the member-led engine rooms for Health Professional Award negotiations.

There are over 300 committee members across professions from metro, regional, rural and remote areas, leading research and development of award claims for negotiations.

Every claim members will vote on comes directly from the committees and are endorsed by committee members.

The committees meet monthly. If you are interested in attending committee meetings, please refer to the schedule below and send your Expression of Interest to [E-Mail not displayed].

Health Professional Advisory Committees - Guidelines

Schedule

Committee	Meeting time
Perfusionist	10am, first Monday of the month
Genetic Counsellors	3pm, first Monday of the month
Aboriginal Health Workers	2pm, first Wednesday of the month
Social Work	12pm, second Wednesday of the month
Occupational Therapy	1pm, second Wednesday of the month
Medical Radiation Science	2pm, the 12th of the month
Cardiac Physiologists	5:30pm, third Tuesday of the month
Technical Officers	7:45pm, third Tuesday of the month
Hospital Scientists	11am, third Wednesday of the month
Health Education Officers	12:30pm, third Friday of the month
Psychology	12pm, fourth Monday of the month
Speech Pathology	12pm, fourth Tuesday of the month
Dental and Oral Health	6pm, fourth Tuesday of the month
Physiotherapy	3pm, fourth Wednesday of each month
Peer Support Workers	4pm, fourth Wednesday of each month
Pharmacy	11am, fourth Friday of the month
Interpreters	Monthly, ad hoc
Biomedical Engineers	Monthly, ad hoc
Dietitians	Monthly, schedule not set
Library staff	Monthly, ad hoc

Award Amalgamation

The structure of HSU Health Awards is out of date and not fit for purpose. HSU members currently sit in over 35 Awards and 15 determinations. Members may have an Award which does not reflect the work performed, have two Awards which could apply or no Award which applies.

In June 2023, members of the HSU Health Professional Committees began work on a project of how HSU Health Awards can be structured better into the future. Key to discussions were:

Improving the strength of HSU members in negotiating improved pay and conditions through collective strength.
Improving the operation and accessibility of Awards into the future.
Ensuring a logical structure where like professionals will sit in the same pay Awards.

Once this review was conducted and the Committee members endorsed it, a period of consultation occurred:

Members meetings held between Friday 4 August and Friday 11 August to explain proposal.
Friday 18 August: the Allied Health Award reform website went live with briefing and information about the proposal.
2-week feedback period with hundreds of members writing into provide input and propose changes.
HSU professional Committees reviewed feedback.
Friday 8 September: a formal survey launched for members to vote on the updated proposal.

The outcome of this process has been wide endorsement, both at a Committee level and within the wider membership with over 90% of members endorsing the proposed Award structure.

If you wish to review the relevant briefing documents, please click below:

Award Amalgamation Briefing Paper

Award Amalgamation Presentation

Universal Health Professional Claims

The combined HSU Health Professionals member-led Industrial Advisory Committees have been preparing HSU claims for Award negotiations. After 12 years of neglect under the wages cap, our Awards are incredibly behind other states and industries, requiring significant work to make them fit for purpose.

This is a broad summary of claims that apply across all professions. Individual professions will have other claims that apply to them specifically.

The list is not final and there is significantly more detail to be added and endorsed through member meetings and votes. However, at this stage, the respective HSU Industrial Advisory Committees have summarised the core claims for member feedback.

Universal Health Professional Claims