Important meeting Thurs 25 November @ 5pm via zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/96206052191

This week, your union met with Fresh Hope Care to continue negotiations for your new enterprise agreement.

Fresh Hope say that they have now tabled their final offer and will soon be taking this offer out to a vote of staff. HSU members need to decide if this offer is good enough to accept, or if we should be standing united for a better deal.

While the proposed new agreement does include some improvements, it fails to address key concerns raised by HSU members across Fresh Hope sites, including:

• Pay increase – Fresh Hope are offering a 2.5% pay increase each year for the next two years. HSU members have claimed pay increases of at least 5% per year. Members will need to decide if this is wage offer is good enough or whether we push for better.
• Medication allowance – Members have claimed a new medication allowance, to compensate staff for taking on the additional responsibility of assisting residents with medication. Management have refused our claim, saying that medication duties are simply part of the job and not worthy of extra pay.
• Uniforms – Fresh Hope Care stopped paying the uniform allowance several years ago, when they started providing uniforms to staff. However, many staff report not receiving adequate numbers of uniform pieces and that the quality is poor. HSU is claiming that staff should be paid the uniform allowance until sufficient, serviceable uniforms are provided.
• Training – HSU Members are calling for all mandatory training to be scheduled in ordinary rostered hours, not done at home and outside of work hours. Management say members ‘want to do their training from home, whenever it suits them’. We disagree and we are seeking that all training be rostered during ordinary hours, to ensure it is fair and members are paid properly for their time.

We are holding a special HSU members meeting next Thursday 25 November at 5pm to discuss the offer and agree on next steps. This is a very important meeting – we encourage all HSU members to attend and have your say.

HSU members can join the meeting here: https://zoom.us/j/96206052191, or call (02) 8015 6011 with the Meeting ID: 962 0605 2191.

If your colleagues are not yet HSU members, please encourage them to join the union so that they can participate. New members can join online at www.hsu.asn.au/join or call 1300 478 679.