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Speaker 1: Well, there's a push happening across the territory this week

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Speaker 1: as Allied Health workers rally over what they say is

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Speaker 1: an unfair deal from the Finocchiaro government. They've been negotiating

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Speaker 1: for over six months, and they've urged members to vote

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Speaker 1: no to that proposed enterprise agreement, with the ballot closing yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Now joining us on the line is Health Services Union

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Speaker 1: NT branch Secretary Billy l. Reck. Good morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Billy, Good morning, thanks for having me on.

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Speaker 1: No worries at all. Now, Billy, what are your concerns

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Speaker 1: with this payoffer from the Northern Territory government and why

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Speaker 1: are members so strongly opposed?

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Speaker 2: It just simply wasn't good enough. To put it directly,

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Speaker 2: it was only a three percent pay increase a year,

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Speaker 2: with not many other changes or increases to benefits. Outside

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Speaker 2: of that. Allot Health is going through an international workforce crisis.

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Speaker 2: Certain areas of Allied Health, like occupational therapy, there's just

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Speaker 2: not enough staff around the world to fill the position

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Speaker 2: that is needed. And also, after years of the wage

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Speaker 2: freeze and pretty poor performance and recognition to Allied Health

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Speaker 2: by the Territory government, we now have some of the

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Speaker 2: last wages. So a four year deal walking in three

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Speaker 2: percent a year is going to take the territory from

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Speaker 2: some of the best paid jobs to the worst. And

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Speaker 2: it's just going to impact services and we can't tolerate it.

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Speaker 1: Billy, talk us through, because there'll be some people listening

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Speaker 1: this morning that are going, Katie, I don't know exactly

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Speaker 1: what jobs some of those allied health jobs are, so

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Speaker 1: give our listeners a bit of an explanation.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely. So. Allied health's an umbrella term, and you know,

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Speaker 2: it can often be easily described as anyone who's not

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Speaker 2: a doctor and a nurse, but the ones that most

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Speaker 2: people would recognize the your physios, your psychologists, your occupational therapists, dietitians,

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Speaker 2: speech pathologists, radiographers, medical scientists. So it is a pretty

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Speaker 2: broad umbrella term to describe a lot of different professionals.

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Speaker 2: What they generally share in common is a highly qualified

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Speaker 2: and educated individual. They work in a clinical space, and

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Speaker 2: they provide specialist.

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Speaker 1: Care and well and they are incredibly important. You know,

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Speaker 1: some of the some of just the recent emails that

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Speaker 1: I've received over the last couple of days from you know,

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Speaker 1: I got an email or I got a message from

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Speaker 1: a parent yesterday, who's not able to get their teenager

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Speaker 1: in to see a mental health specialist. You know, I've

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Speaker 1: had people get in contact with me. They're not able

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Speaker 1: to get results at different times from scans and things

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Speaker 1: like that. So we know that our allied health professionals

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Speaker 1: cover a whole range of different areas. I mean, even

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Speaker 1: as you've said there speech speech pathologists for example, and

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Speaker 1: the incredible work that they do. I mean, we cannot

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Speaker 1: be in a situation in the Northern Territory where we're

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Speaker 1: not able to attract them here we all need these specialists.

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Speaker 1: So how are those pay rates comparing to other locations

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Speaker 1: around Australia.

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Speaker 2: Pretty poor. So you know South Australia did four percent.

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Speaker 2: Just recently New southwalest I think did four point five percent.

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Speaker 2: There's definitely been a recognition from governments across Australia that

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Speaker 2: the cost of living crisis has hit a lot of

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Speaker 2: people hard. These are really valuable positions and they need

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Speaker 2: to be recognized or they will leave. We have enough

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Speaker 2: trouble attracting people into the territory as it is. And

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Speaker 2: if you can jump across to Queensland and Wa which

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Speaker 2: are generally very well paying jurisdictions you can get a

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Speaker 2: twenty grand pay bump. People love living here, people love

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Speaker 2: the territory of public service. But there becomes a point

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Speaker 2: where that just it's just not sensible to continue working

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Speaker 2: for such low wages. And yeah, absolutely right that many

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Speaker 2: of these professions are really really important. One of the

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Speaker 2: things we've been talking about this week is the fact

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Speaker 2: that the territory has the highest rate and country of

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Speaker 2: lower lum amputations and you need P dietists to help

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Speaker 2: prevent that and manage it when it occurs. And you know,

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Speaker 2: at the moment, if we have a P dietary shortage,

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Speaker 2: it's going on around the world and we will be

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Speaker 2: spending thousands getting them shipped in from interstate. Aren't retaining

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Speaker 2: the ones that we are in now.

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Speaker 1: I understand that rallies happened obviously at Royal Darwin and

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Speaker 1: Alice Springs Hospitals yesterday. How did that go and why

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Speaker 1: did just sort of decide to go down that path?

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Speaker 2: Went really well? We had really good turnout, first time

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Speaker 2: that Allied health has ever sort of rallied like that

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Speaker 2: in memory. So we went down that path because our

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Speaker 2: health is often forgotten about and it isn't the center

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Speaker 2: point of discussion. We were really concerned that this EA

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Speaker 2: ballot would be a yes vote and that may be

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Speaker 2: locked in on these terrible deal. Thankfully, we got the

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Speaker 2: news yesday that the no vote was successful and the

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Speaker 2: rally was a last minute, the last attempt to get

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Speaker 2: the no vote up and out and really bring attention

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Speaker 2: to the plight of the Allied health professionals at the moment.

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Speaker 1: So where to from here? I mean, I know some

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Speaker 1: people listening this morning will be going, look, it's a

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Speaker 1: pay rise over four years. They might argue that it's

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Speaker 1: ambitious given the budget pressures that the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 1: is facing. You know, we're too from here, and what

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Speaker 1: would you say to anybody that's sort of you know

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Speaker 1: that's thinking that right now.

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Speaker 2: So we want to meet with the territory government, with

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Speaker 2: the Officer of the Commissioner for the Public Sector Employment

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Speaker 2: and sort out a deal. Members don't want to be

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Speaker 2: doing protracted industrial action. They want to get back to

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Speaker 2: doing their job. Look, you're not wrong with the budget pressures.

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Speaker 2: We understand that that is as not an endless pool

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Speaker 2: of cash that can be given, but there are many

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Speaker 2: mechanisms that they can use to address some of these

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Speaker 2: workforce shortages, and you know things like professional development costs.

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Speaker 2: These clinicians often have to keep up dozens of hours

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Speaker 2: of professional development courses and things like that which are

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Speaker 2: held into state, they have to fly in and out.

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Speaker 2: They currently cover probably about eighty percent of those costs

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Speaker 2: themselfs with very small reimbursement or contribution from their employer.

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Speaker 2: So one of the good ways to attract and retain

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Speaker 2: staff is to cover that cost. It's not an unreasonable expectation,

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Speaker 2: and then it would help take pressure off wage demands.

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Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, what do we

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Speaker 2: want the health system to be like in four years

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Speaker 2: and what are we willing to pay for it? Because

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Speaker 2: if we don't have an houred health workforce that is

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Speaker 2: going to remain in the territory, we're not going to

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Speaker 2: have health service that meets community expectations.

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Speaker 1: Well, Billy l Eric Health Services Union into Branch Secretary,

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Please keep us up

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Speaker 1: to date and let us know how things progress.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much.

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Speaker 1: Thank you