Enterprise Agreement Update | IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PSA MEMBERS - GOVERNMENT MOVE IS UNDERMINING, DIVISIVE, AND POLITICAL

The government last week issued a new Notice of Intention to Negotiate an Enterprise Agreement for Allied Health Professionals and Allied Health Assistants across the public sector.

This is the most hostile approach from a government in more than 25 years of negotiating the salaried agreement. It is a clear attempt by the government to “divide and conquer” their own workforce.

This is the government which still refuses to acknowledge that PSA members are suffering from a cost of living crisis, and refuses to accept that significant wage increases are required to address PSA members’ issues and the current attraction and retention crisis plaguing our public sector.

Allied Health Professionals and Allied Health Assistants are currently part of the salaried agreement. They are PSA members who the PSA represents and for whom the PSA advocates and negotiates. The employer’s notice does not change this.

The position of the PSA and our broad membership remains for a single agreement for all those employees covered by the current salaried agreement. This position is derived from the thorough all-member engagement the PSA undertook in the lead-up to these negotiations. It was confirmed by PSA members’ elected PSA Council through the union’s democratic processes. It was not determined by the whims of a few individual members.

IT’S DIVISIVE

This is the biggest threat to the integrity of the salaried agreement in its more than 25 year history. It confirms the government’s intention to create division and disruption instead of dealing with PSA members’ critical priorities, especially a significant wages increase. It is also further evidence the employer is refusing to take a whole-of-government approach.

There is only one reason employers try to divide their workforce. And that is to attempt to reduce the negotiation power of their workforce. Employers do not try to divide and disrupt their workforce because it is in the best interests of their employees. Dividing the workforce is a tried and true tactic used by employers to reduce workers’ power, and to make it easier for employers to pursue their own interests and agenda.

Splitting off groups from the salaried agreement would make those separated groups more isolated and vulnerable. This is an attempt by the employer to reduce the negotiation power of both the separated groups of workers and the other workers covered by the salaried agreement. It is an attempt to reduce PSA members’ strength in relation to all the other industrial matters members face both now and into the future.

Protecting and improving members’ pay and conditions is best served by harnessing our collective strength – and not accepting division, distraction and undermining.

Specialised terms - negotiated by the PSA - for AHPs and other groups of employees already exist in our current salaried enterprise agreement, and have done so for a long time now. There is no industrial purpose to be served by separate agreements. There is nothing that could be included in a separate agreement that could not be included in a single salaried agreement. The only impact of a separate agreement would be to reduce the overall negotiating power of all members.

IT’S UNDERMINING

The government is being supported in its attempt to reduce the collective strength of PSA members and to undermine PSA member’ position in these negotiations by the Health Services Union (HSU) and two government IR operatives, who say they are agents for some employees – including some PSA members - in negotiations for a replacement salaried agreement. They are being supported by people in senior management roles.

In recent communications the HSU has advised its members that achieving a separate agreement of itself is their highest priority, and that they are willing to trade off pay and conditions outcomes in order to achieve a separate AHP/AHA agreement, regardless of the content.

The HSU told their members this month that:

“It’s highly likely we will need to make sacrifices on certain claims to achieve an EA that is separate for Allied Health with specialised terms.”; and

“…….Allied Health campaign has the goal of achieving a specialised and separate EA for Allied Health. This is what we should focus on when considering something that may be offered by the government.”

The two government IR operatives – who as employer representatives would fully understand the divide and conquer tactic – have publicly supported the HSU’s approach for separate agreements.

These same two employer IR operatives have regularly appeared for the employer in negotiations for agreements and in representing the employer in industrial tribunals in disputes against workers and unions including the PSA.

IT’S ALSO POLITICAL

The controversial and trouble-plagued HSU last year joined the state ALP’s dominant Right faction.

One of the government IR operatives is also known to be involved in the same ALP political faction.

Political affiliations such as these raise genuine questions for members about whether members’ best interests will always be their highest priority – or whether other demands might be prioritised.

The PSA is proudly not politically or financially affiliated. The PSA is fiercely independent and has no political constraints when addressing issues with government. Our positions and proposals come from our members. We don’t have to “toe a political party line” or only hold positions that are in line with, or determined by, a political party, or a faction of that party. This enables the PSA and our members to fight hard and strong against any government of the day when we need to. The PSA is a union of and for our members, and is loyal only to our members.

The PSA is the only union representing AHPs in SA that is independent of the government.

This is the government which, nearly six months since negotiations started, still refuses to acknowledge that PSA members are suffering from a cost of living crisis and that there is a structural imbalance between South Australian public sector wages and other parts of the labour market, resulting in an attraction and retention crisis.

The PSA’s priorities remain the same. PSA members’ best interests are best served by a single agreement which builds on the current agreement and which deals with PSA members’ priorities – not the employer’s priorities.

The PSA is firmly committed to ensuring negotiations result in protecting and enhancing conditions that members have fought for, and won, during previous negotiations – not reducing conditions or exposing groups of members to being vulnerable and isolated.

Together we have a rich history of achieving successful agreements and protecting each other.

The PSA will continue to fight for PSA members’ priorities regardless of the government’s (and others’) disruptive, divisive and undermining actions and priorities.

United We Stand – Divided We Beg

We all know that PSA members working together can improve outcomes for public sector workers and the community. You and your colleagues have the power to make a real difference. But we have to be in it together to make that difference.

Ask those yet to join you in the PSA to join online today.

YOUR UNION, YOUR VOICE, YOUR AGREEMENT

Contact: youragreement@psaofsa.asn.au

24 February 2025