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Public sector bargaining - employer offer, and plans for industrial action

1.What is your profession?
2.Which public health employer(s) do you work for? (Please select all that apply)
As you might know, we've been bargaining for a new enterprise agreement for some months now. The next few questions will be about the offer we recently received from the Victorian Government.

This offer included a 3% annual pay rise over a four year agreement, along with a one-off 0.5% cash payment with almost all of our other claims rejected.

We have claimed a pay rise of no less than 28% over that period - to match, at a minimum, what nurses achieved in their bargained outcome, and to address the gender-based undervaluation that has been established through our work in the Fair Work Commission.

We have also claimed a range of other improvements - from uplifts to various allowances, to major improvements to career progression, to better access to reimbursement of professional development expenses (with a clearly identifiable sum of money available to each employee every year), and much more. You can view our full log of claims on our website (msav.org.au).

Your Union bargaining team (made up of your delegates from across a range of professions and health services, along with Union staff) thinks this offer is a long way from acceptable - but we want to hear what you think.
3.Would you be prepared to accept a pay rise of 3% per year, for four years?
4.Should we continue to push for a pay rise of no less than 28% over a four-year period?
5.Should we continue to push for real improvements to career progression (including Grade 1-2 progression for those professions where workers get stuck at Grade 1, as well as better pathways to higher classifications based on clinical/professional skills?
6.Should we continue to push for improved access to reimbursement for professional development expenses (i.e. by having a clearly identified amount of money available to each worker every year)?
7.Should we continue to push for the introduction of paid reproductive health leave?
8.Should we continue to push for clinical supervision entitlements for professions that do not have them?
9.Should we continue to push for measures to reduce workload pressure and improve backfill and other staffing requirements?
10.Should we continue to push for improved parental leave entitlements?
11.Should we continue to push for improved flexible work arrangements?
12.Should we continue to push for EFT for dedicated clinical educator roles?
13.Should we continue to push for uplifts to shift allowances, and higher qualifications allowances?
It is not surprising that a first formal offer in bargaining falls short on many of the claims being negotiated.

Your Union bargaining team is confident we can win a much better offer - but we may need to exercise some leverage in negotiations to achieve this.

The primary leverage available under the Fair Work Act is protected industrial action. This can take two main forms, partial work bans, or work stoppages.

Partial work bans are where you still turn up for work, but certain tasks (e.g. some administrative and/or billing-related duties, for instance) are not performed by those taking industrial action. This can ensure that vital work still gets performed, while adding pressure up the chain - particularly where it impacts on the finances.

Work stoppages are where, for a period of time, you don't attend work at all. This can be for a few minutes, a few hours, or longer. It can sometimes be coordinated around a big rally, or a BBQ or other public event where the aim is to gather media attention or other forms of publicity.

Importantly, there are protections in place under the law to ensure that industrial action does not cause anyone (e.g. patients, consumers) harm - and beyond those legal requirements we would not organise industrial action that puts anyone at risk.

Before any protected industrial action can be taken, we would need to follow a formal process in the Fair Work Commission, and all of our members will be able to vote in a ballot on whether they endorse any proposed actions. This current survey is an informal preliminary process to help guide our next steps - a formal ballot would be conducted separately.
14.Would you support us organising for you to be able to take protected industrial action to secure a better offer? (Note: the earliest this could occur would be around Feb 2026)
15.Would you be open to participating in some form of partial work bans (e.g. withholding certain admin/billing-related tasks)
16.Do you have any ideas for partial work bans you / your team could perform?
17.Would you be open to participating in some kind of work stoppages?
Under the Fair Work Act, when a Union organises protected industrial action, only members of that Union are permitted by law to participate in the action.

If you're not already a member, you can join via our website: https://msav.org.au/
18.Are you a current member of our Union (MSAV/VPA/AHP)?
If members are in favour of organising protected industrial action early in the new year, then a formal ballot will occur to meet Fair Work Act requirements. For this to happen, it's critically important that we have your up-to-date details on your member record.

Please take a moment to check that your contact details, address, and employment details (including if you have multiple employers) are all current and accurate - you can do so via your member portal here: https://msav.360membership.com.au/Profile.aspx

If you have difficulty accessing your member portal you can contact us at enquiry@msav.org.au to assist.
19.Are you interested in getting more involved (e.g. becoming a workplace delegate, or organising a meeting with your colleagues to talk about bargaining and industrial action)? If so, please leave your full name, profession, worksite, and best contact details.
20.Is there anything else you would like to tell us about bargaining, industrial action, or anything else from this survey?
Thanks for your input - it will inform our next steps. Regardless of what we do next, bargaining is ultimately about strength in numbers. The more of us standing together to bargain for better, the greater our chances of securing a good deal.
Please, share this survey with your colleagues and urge them to join the Union now while we all work to win better pay and conditions.