Vote NO to the AHP AHA Separate Agreement Sellout

When it comes time to vote, the PSA urges all Allied Health Professionals (AHP) and Allied Health Assistants (AHAs) to VOTE NO to the government proposal for a separate AHP/AHA agreement.

A further PSA Update detailing specifics of the government’s proposal will follow. Information meetings about the proposal are being arranged.

Register here

However, we can advise PSA members that this proposed agreement represents the biggest sellout of members’ conditions in the history of South Australian public sector industrial agreements.

The HSU’s statement that there would be “no reduction in terms and conditions” is demonstrably and blatantly untrue.

1. VOTE NO to a separate agreement that removes essential conditions fought for and won by generations of PSA members.

Essential, fundamental conditions about job security, workload protection, consultation, dispute resolution, and many other conditions are at risk of being ripped away from members forever. Any area where the employer has accountability to the worker has been removed or watered down.

These are conditions fought for and won by PSA members over 30 years. Once they’re gone – they won’t come back.

2. VOTE NO to being required to convert to working across seven days a week – with only three months’ notice.

This would make it impossible for you to plan your life – such as organising caring responsibilities, study, leisure activities and the like. And under this agreement, your roster would be implemented with limited consultation, no stopping of the steam roller during a grievance or dispute about it.

What’s more, you will receive no additional leave to the five weeks that you are currently entitled to when working over seven days.

3. VOTE NO to trading an inadequate, inequitable and divisive wage rise for worse conditions.

The proposed wage rises are inadequate, inequitable and divisive. For most AHAs and AHPs, the proposed wage rises won’t even make up for the real losses to current wages caused by the cost-of-living crisis.

The PSA has been advocating for a wage outcome that immediately makes up for the loss in the real value of wages, and that provides for adequate wage rises above inflation into the future. The government’s proposal does not provide for this.

Some AHPs will receive additional allowances. The PSA believes that all AHPs and AHAs deserve wages that cover wage erosion caused by inflation and the cost of living – and to recognise and reward the hard work you all do.

4. VOTE NO to an agreement that has stripped out your employer’s accountability.

The proposed agreement is drafted to remove any accountability of your employer, and puts all the onus on employees. It represents a major power shift from the current more balanced relationship between employer and worker to a dictatorial/submissive employment relationship.

5. VOTE NO to politically motivated negotiations.

Your conditions are being sold off by the politically motivated and self-interested HSU – a union with a very questionable history.

6. VOTE NO to misinformation about your conditions.

The HSU has spread misinformation about the separate agreement. For example, they’ve stated: “No reduction in terms and conditions compared to the Salaried Agreement. Nothing is going backwards…” .

This is demonstrably not true. For example, consultation and dispute resolution processes have been watered down to be virtually ineffective. Job security protections in our Redeployment, Retraining and Redundancy Appendix have been gutted. Even the commitment to no loss of conditions is gone!

This is the first public sector agreement the HSU has “negotiated” in South Australia – and it shows.

7. VOTE NO to an agreement negotiated in secret.

This separate agreement offer has been negotiated in secret by the government with their preferred factional negotiating partners. The government has obfuscated the PSA’s input into their draft proposal and we do not agree with what they have put forward.

8. VOTE NO to WorkChoices conditions stripping.

Remember WorkChoices – the disgraceful John Howard-era industrial legislation that stripped away many workers’ rights?

The current separate agreement aims to strip away your rights in the same way. It has been arrived at by a government negotiation process which lacked integrity and with minimal commitment to the public sector, and by an unregistered union which doesn’t, and can’t, cover many of the workers covered by the proposed agreement.

9. VOTE NO to substandard agreements for all public sector workers.

The government is cynically treating AHPs as unsuspecting guinea pigs for the first of all the public sector agreements currently under negotiation this year. By establishing a very low bar for them all (including the salaried agreement), the government can ignore the cost-of-living crisis and continue to suppress public sector wages.

The HSU – in collaboration with bargaining agents – is doing the government’s dirty work by agreeing to a proposed substandard agreement as the first public sector agreement voted on this year.

10. VOTE NO to a separate agreement at all costs.

The HSU – along with other bargaining agents – has long trumpeted a separate agreement as an end in itself. In other words: the content of the agreement doesn’t matter.

The PSA knows that the content of an agreement is what’s most critical. We will continue to fight for the best wage outcome for members – without trading off or losing your current conditions.

11. VOTE NO so you can keep, and improve on all your current conditions – and have the opportunity to win proper and equitable wage rises.

The content of the proposed AHP/AHA agreement is, with a few exceptions, disgraceful and totally disrespectful to the employees it’s proposed to cover. PSA members need – and deserve – much better.

You will be fine when you VOTE NO.

When you Vote No you get to keep all your current conditions instead of losing them – as well as the opportunity to win proper and equitable wage increases.

For those who say a separate agreement provides a platform for the future – we already have a platform – it’s called the salaried agreement. We don’t need to start again from scratch.

For those who think wage rises for each discipline can be won in the future – at the rate of special wage rises for one discipline with every four year agreement (as there is with this proposal), with 25 more disciplines to go we can expect an equitable agreement for all AHPs in … 100 years!

BE INFORMED – COME TO A PSA ONLINE MEETING THIS WEEK

The PSA is holding online meetings by Zoom where we’ll discuss the separate agreement offer in depth. Choose a time and day that suits you and come along.

SA Public Sector AHP & AHA Online Meeting times:

• Tuesday, 24 June, 2025 at    12:00 noon
• Wednesday, 25 June, 2025 at    12:00 noon 
• Wednesday, 25 June, 2025 at    5:30pm 
• Thursday, 26 June,2025 at    12:00 noon 
• Thursday, 26 June, 2025 at    5:30pm 
• Friday, 27 June, 2025 at    12:00 noon 
• Monday, 30 June, 2025 at    12:00 noon 
• Monday, 30 June, 2025 at    5:30pm 
• Tuesday, 1 July, 2025 at   12:00 noon

If you can't make it to one of these meetings, but are still interested in receiving information on this, please get in touch email enquiries@psaofsa.asn.au  or call 8205 3200 

Register here

All AHP/AHA employees are all welcome to attend.

THE BEST OUTCOMES COME FROM STANDING UNITED

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