Public health allied professionals have secured a new enterprise agreement with the Victorian government. The deal was finalised on 4 August, minutes before a mass stop-work meeting, which had been called to discuss escalating industrial action. Around 600 union members marched through the CBD to celebrate the announcement. 

The agreement includes a number of measures on which the union – the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association – refused to budge, including limits on the use of fixed term contracts and restrictions on the de-skilling of advanced practice areas. The protections against de-skilling are important at a time when hospitals are increasingly seeking to replace skilled staff with lower paid allied health assistants. 

The four-year deal also improves time-in-lieu rates, dispute resolution procedures, job classifications and professional development leave entitlements. Pay rates will go up 12.5 percent over the life of the agreement. While modest, the pay rise is an advance on the 2.5 percent a year figure many public sector workers are taking at the moment. After years of notoriously dodgy leadership under Kathy Jackson, it’s a wage rise higher than many union members have come to expect. “I’ve never seen anything close to a 3 percent pay rise, ever”, said one member who has worked in the sector for almost a decade. 

The pay and conditions of Victorian allied health professionals are still catching up with those of most of our interstate colleagues, but this agreement and the campaign leading to it have shown that union members are up to the task. It is a victory for workers fighting hard to regain ground given up by the union leadership that negotiated our last two enterprise agreements.  

Union membership increased over the campaign, as did the activity and visibility of members in their workplaces. While we haven’t won everything back, we have taken important steps in rebuilding our union and developing an active membership. Fighting health sector unions will be important as we fend off ongoing attacks on the public health system.