Last Friday, you would have received the Notice of Employee Representational Rights (NERR) from the P&L department.

This signals the formal commencement of bargaining at Teachers Health.

As a union member, you do not need to do anything – the USU is by default your bargaining representative.    

What’s the deal?

Last week, your USU Representatives met with senior management to commence negotiations for your Enterprise Agreement (EA).

Management have proposed to rollover your existing EA for another year with the intention of passing down a pay increase with effect from 1st January 2022.

Under their proposal, the renegotiation of your whole EA will take place around mid 2022.

You can view the formal correspondence by clicking here:

Your USU Representatives have taken the position to seek further clarification from management and commence negotiations for the 1-year pay increase.

In consultation with our membership, we reserve the right to revoke this proposal at any time during negotiations and seek the renegotiation of the whole EA this year through the Fair Work Commission.  

What’s the current offer?

Based on widespread consultation with our membership recently, your USU Representatives have taken the position to seek a 4.5% pay increase under the current proposal from management.

However, at last week’s meeting, management presented the offer of 1.5% on the table.

This current offer does not in any way reflect the profits achieved last year and the dedication of our members to the organisation, maintaining the growth of these profits whilst working mostly remotely during these challenging times.

It further ignores the recent decision by management to abolish the bonus structure which is afforded to most employees of other Health Funds.

Your USU Representatives made it clear we will not accept this offer under any circumstance and management have committed to coming back to us with a revised pay offer in the coming week.

Next steps:

Your USU representatives will be holding member meetings over the coming weeks to seek your feedback during these negotiations.

If you have any questions or preliminary feedback to give, please contact your USU Bargaining Representatives, Vince Raschilla, Michael Garner, Simon Perrett, Crystal Bailey, Jessica Tadros, Julia Huh and Phil Laidlaw.

Joining union stalwarts Vince, Michael, and Simon – the experiences of Crystal, Jessica, Julia, and Phil will go a long way to strengthen our bargaining position and to further represent the diversity of our strong and active membership at Teachers Health.

We are stronger together!

If you know of a colleague who isn’t yet a union member, forward them this email and encourage them to stand with us in the fight for better pay and join our union.

Now is the time we need to all unite and work together!

New members can join the union online at https://usu.org.au/join/ or by calling 1300 136 604.

If you have any questions about this email or require any assistance at work, please contact USU Organiser Thomas Gao on 0417 420 924 or via email at tgao@usu.org.au