Merri Health denies some of its 400 workers a 16 per cent pay rise after leaving enterprise agreement negotiations
WORKERS at Merri Health were threatened with a pay docking for taking action after the health provider was the only one in Victoria to say no to a wage increase.
North West
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HUNDREDS of workers at Merri Health have been denied a significant pay rise after the community health provider was the only one of 31 in Victoria to walk away from negotiations with the Health Workers Union.
The new Community Health Agreement, signed off by the other 30 providers, was set to give a pay rise of 16 per cent to Merri Health’s 400 workers; however, the organisation backed out of negotiations. The organisation provides a range of health services in seven locations in Moreland, as well as in Preston, Thornbury and Wangaratta.
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Some workers were threatened with a docking of 25 per cent of their pay cheques after they took strike action that involved refusing to fill out important statistic forms.
Those statistics are used to calculate clients’ bills.
People and communications general manager Nessa Pastoors said leaving negotiations provided a chance for Merri Health to find “solutions that are tailored to our workforce” after current negotiations had been ongoing since the last agreement expired on December 31, 2015.
Workers are asking for back pay from the end of the former agreement as well as clearer guidelines on career pathways through classification grades.
According to Ms Pastoors, Merri Health calculated the 25 per cent pay docking as a representation of the workload the statistics take up in the roles of workers.
But one worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said staff found just 1.14 per cent was docked from their pay on June 22 after a recalculation of the workload required for the statistics, but workers were only notified of the change on June 25.
“We’re exploring a unique opportunity for employees that meets their needs and avoids years of negotiation, leading to employee frustration,” Ms Pastoors said.
Health Workers Union secretary Diana Asmar slammed the decision to back out of negotiations, saying the provider had gone “rogue”.
“There is no justification for them holding out,” she said.
“Community workers at Merri … are vital for the health and wellbeing of the local community.”
Ms Asmar said it did not “stack up” that workers were not getting a pay rise when overall management wages rose 28 per cent in 2016-17, from $762,111 to $1,020,416.
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