Women’s Rights: Despite advances more needs to be done
This week we celebrated International Women’s Day and the launch of Women’s Rights At Work (WRAW) Fest 2023. Our new Public Sector Enterprise Agreement includes paid superannuation on unpaid parental leave, improved paid parental leave entitlements, strengthened clauses on flexible work arrangements, and more opportunities for career progression. These are significant improvements on past conditions. While these are great...
Health Services dropping ball on back pays
Implementing the new Public Sector Agreement has seen elements like the payment of back pay and the employment of more psychologists and pharmacists continuing to be sources of major frustration. We are increasingly frustrated by the number of public Health Services who are incapable of paying members what they are owed in back pay. It’s now three months since the new Agreement came into force, and it is bewildering that public Health...
It’s time to say Yes!
Later this year, Australians will vote on a change to our nation’s constitution which seeks to enshrine a voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to our national Parliament. After over 65,000 years of continuous culture, it’s time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are recognised in our 122-year-old constitution. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want recognition in a practical form by having a say...
No Pay? No Way!
Over the past decade staff reductions forced through budget cuts has caused workloads to steadily increase. Health managers have long stopped thinking about how we cope with extra work. We are just expected to do more and more work in the same amount of time. In 2015, hundreds of thousands of hours of unpaid time will be worked to cope with unreasonably high workloads. There is growing evidence of a systemic reliance on unpaid work to...