Community Health Update
After the celebratory “Our Agreement’s been approved!!” cheers in all Agreements comes the follow up questions, usually focusing on salary matters and improved conditions. This is particularly the case with our new Community Health Agreement where there is considerable backpay and significant structural changes.
Most Centres appear to have now paid both the lump sum and the backpay however, we are aware of some issues at a couple of Centres around how this has been applied.
This has particularly impacted staff who were due for an annual increment within the period that either of the back-pay dates apply, as well as staff positively impacted by the new automatic progression to Grade 2.
In relation to classification changes, it’s clear there are a range of interpretations being applied to elements around Grade one staff performing home visits.
This is a significant and important change which was the subject of a considerable amount of discussion in bargaining, particularly focused at arriving at the clear outlines in the new clause.
VAHPA will be putting out a series of special Community Health e-news editions in coming weeks to assist with these and other matters. If you have queries in the interim, please don’t hesitate to contact VAHPA.
If there are other elements of your new Agreement which you think you would like to know more about, please email your suggestions to organiser@vahpa.asn.au and we’ll prepare an information alert.
There’s every chance that if you have a query about something, so does someone else!