We met with Virtus again as a part of our regular bargaining meetings to keep progressing talks on a new agreement.
At the meeting Virtus put forward their long-awaited wages offer, which fell short of the 8s we asked for to say the least.
What they put on the table for your yearly increases each 1 July is:
- 2024: 3.75%
- 2025: 3.25%
- 2026: 3%
- 2027: 3%
Adurty asked us to consider the context in which the offer is made, which we agree is important. She said that Tasmania is a “different” market with different challenges – which we also agree with. What we don’t agree with is her logic.
She claimed it was different because it’s a smaller market – this may be true population wise, but in terms of patients it’s our understanding that you’re essentially one of, if not the only, providers who run the extent of IVF services that you do in the state.
She also said that patient prices were 30-40% higher in Melbourne (which is a business decision, not a worker one) and gave the example that a 1% increase actually meant double in Tasmania because of factors like CPI, consumables, rent that the business pays, power and the like.
We reckon it’s a different market because over the past few years your rent has doubled, interest rates are at record highs, power prices are more expensive, CPI is running at 4%, the mainland wages gap continues to increase, and we’re one of the most expensive capital cities in the country to buy fuel and groceries.
We told Virtus that we’re happy to consider the context of the business if they’ll consider the context of workers, and we also asked them to provide us with financials so we can see if their claims stack up. However, they were unwilling to share these – citing that they’re confidential.
Whatever the case, we’ll be out to talk to you further about what you want to do next and what you think of their offer.
Given that they still haven’t acknowledged issues like changing into scrubs in work time, career progression and transparency (particularly for admin), or other claims we made such as capping practice shutdown and aligning different entitlements across the agreement, it’s hard to see that we’ll have good news to take back to Virtus.
We'll meet with members again soon and talk more about what you want to bring back to Virtus in terms of a response. Keep an eye out for a further update advertising meeting times.