VAHPA members at Yooralla have overwhelmingly voted in favour of taking protected industrial action.
With 100% voting Yes to taking action out of the 82% who voted, the result is a firm rejection of Yooralla’s bargaining position. Yooralla had proposed changes including increases to the span of hours, cuts to long service leave and accident pay, and a loss of Easter Saturday pay and overtime access for part-timers.
Faced with the threat of a protected action ballot, Yooralla dropped the worst of these proposals in an attempt to avoid industrial action, but the proposed pay increases of 2.5% per annum over 2 years would leave workers lagging behind the Public Sector by around $3000-$4000 per year.
VAHPA recommended that Yooralla members vote for industrial action to secure a better wage offer and it appears as though members strongly agreed. Action is due to commence Wednesday 16 November.
The type of actions members will take include wearing campaign badges, displaying and distributing flyers, and refusing to process certain reports and files, statistics and other forms of clerical work. For further details, members are encouraged to attend meetings next week and/or contact Organiser Jody Betzien and VAHPA directly.