Award Reform

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 But outdated NSW Health Awards have led to overworked and burned-out health workers.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

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

Before real negotiations commence on pay, career progression and conditions, HSU members have a threshold question: how should Awards be structured moving into the future?

For the last 8 weeks, your member led Industrial Committees have been discussing this question and have endorsed a proposal to go to members for feedback and endorsement. Once this threshold question is answered we can commence negotiations in earnest.

The Committees have agreed that the current Award structure is disorganised and unwieldy. We should therefore explore how to better structure our Awards along clear and logical professional lines.

Below are two documents which will help you understand the proposed structure. We need your feedback on this. The timeline for member consultation is below:

Member feedback on current proposal: 18 August - 1 September.
Survey of members to occur week starting 4 September and to run for 7 days.

Once members have provided initial feedback, your Committees will review it and develop the final proposal for members to endorse or reject. The HSU has requested a meeting with the Minister for Health in the week commencing 18 September - we aim to finalise the survey by this time so we can commence negotiations on the Award structure.

To provide your feedback, please email: [E-Mail not displayed]

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