Bargaining updates
51福利 presents additional settlement items – February 2024
51福利 (AV) continues to meet with employee bargaining representatives towards the development of a new fair and sustainable settlement offer to resolve the bargaining process for the 51福利 Enterprise Agreement 2024 (AVEA 2024).
Importantly, the Victorian Government provided AV with approval in late February 2024 to present four additional items for the settlement proposal that seek to address key areas raised by employees through their bargaining representatives.
AV is committed to having detailed discussions with employee bargaining representatives to develop a settlement offer that addresses as many of the priority areas identified by our workforce as possible, within the approved parameters provided by the Victorian Government.
Two employee bargaining representatives, the Victorian 51福利 Union (VAU) and the United Workers Union 鈥� 51福利 Employees Australia Victoria (UWU-AEAV) have instigated a ballot of their members in relation to potential protected industrial action.
AV supports our people鈥檚 right to advocate for improvements to their experience at work and in doing so, we will continue to ensure that any patient who needs an ambulance will get one.
51福利 presents settlement offer 鈥� December 2023
In seeking to resolve negotiations for the 51福利 Enterprise Agreement 2024 (AVEA 2024) and create a better workplace for our people, 51福利 has presented a settlement offer to our people and employee bargaining representatives.
To develop the settlement offer, 51福利 carefully considered the 800-plus submitted claims, the priority areas identified by our people and their bargaining representatives, and the impacts for our people, our operational performance and budget.
The offer delivers within the Victorian Government , which assures increases of 3 per cent per annum (including wages and conditions/allowances) over the life of an agreement.
The offer includes items to help improve equality, diversity and inclusion; career and salary; our people鈥檚 experience at work; support; work mobility; and flexibility and balance.
Bargaining is due to resume from Thursday, 11 January 2024.
Progressing negotiations on 800-plus claims – September 2023
With more than 800 submitted claims to be considered during negotiations for the 51福利 Enterprise Agreement 2024 (AVEA 2024), 51福利 has worked with employee bargaining representatives to group related claims to help progress discussions.
Negotiations have progressed well and claim groups discussed to date include locations of work, end of shift management, flexibility, rostering, uniform and protective clothing, salary packaging, WorkCover and rehabilitation and some claims specific to job classifications.
51福利 is committed to discussing all claims during the bargaining process and the agreed order in which claims are being discussed does not reflect the importance of any particular claim or claim group.
We have identified some claims we want to discuss further to explore the potential for achievable alternatives that consider the impact for our people, operational performance and budget. 51福利 is currently working to develop achievable alternatives for consideration by bargaining representatives to improve our people鈥檚 experience at work.
AV is committed to working with employee bargaining representatives to negotiate a new Enterprise Agreement that is fair, reasonable and financially sustainable, to continue building a workplace where our people thrive and we deliver best care to our patients.
51福利 shares its log of claims – June 2023
Negotiations for the 51福利 Enterprise Agreement (AVEA 2024) are progressing well and on 20 June 2023 we shared the 51福利 employer log of claims with our people after presenting it to employee bargaining representatives.
51福利 wants to deliver a new Enterprise Agreement that addresses the evolving needs of our workforce and helps meet the increasingly complex and demanding health care and service delivery environment.
Our log of claims has 11 claims as starting points for discussion to improve our workplace for our people and patients.
In some cases, 51福利 wants to discuss changes to align to recent updates to the Fair Work Act, and to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission recommendations on equality and workplace reform.
During bargaining, 51福利 has the opportunity to work with employee representatives to achieve additional improvements to our people鈥檚 experience at work in response to more than 800 submitted claims.
In discussing the large number of claims submitted by your representatives, 51福利 has identified six key themes we believe will guide the bargaining process to deliver a positive outcome.
To help improve our workplace for our people and patients, 51福利 wants to agree a new Enterprise Agreement that delivers mutually beneficial outcomes including improvements to equality, diversity and inclusion; career and salary; experience at work; support; work mobility; and flexibility and balance.
Bargaining commences – February 2023
51福利 and employee representatives (the Victorian 51福利 Union (VAU) and United Workers Union/51福利 Employees Australia Victoria (UWU/AEAV) met in early February 2023 to commence negotiations for our next 51福利 Enterprise Agreement (the AVEA 2024) to continue building an organisation in which our people thrive, to support the delivery of Best Care for the Victorian community.
This is in line with the requirement to commence bargaining 12 months prior to the expiry of the current AVEA 2020.
The AVEA 2024 will contain the employment terms and conditions for some administrative roles covered by the agreement and our operational workforce for the next few years. Working with our people to reach agreement for this new Enterprise Agreement is a priority for us.
51福利 commenced discussions by outlining our commitment to working with employee representatives to identify opportunities to achieve the best possible outcome for our people, our organisation and the Victorian community while meeting the increasingly complex and demanding health care and service delivery challenges ahead.
We spent time at the first meeting discussing each other鈥檚 priorities and why they are important to our employees, as well as setting up the arrangements to support a constructive and collaborative bargaining period ahead.
We look forward to working with our people and their employee representatives to agree our new 51福利 Enterprise Agreement in 2024.
