Advocacy

The process to formalise the agreement and make it legally binding will still take some time.

Step 1: We need to finalise the drafting of the agreement with the representatives of Hospitals. This is advanced and is close to completion.

Step 2: The final draft needs to obtain government approval by the central agency Industrial Relations Victoria. While the settlement has been approved by government (including the Department of Treasury and Finance), final approval of the drafted agreement must also occur. As this is a government process, this may take a period of time.

Step 3: Once approved by the Victorian Government, the finalised agreement will be circulated to employees during what is known as an ‘access period’ – this is a minimum period of seven days, prior to an electronic ballot of all employees covered by the agreement.

Step 4: Once approved by employees, within 14 days the employer’s representative will lodge the final agreement, with supporting documentation to the Fair Work Commission for its approval. While there isn’t a prescribed timeframe for the Fair Work Commission, currently it is generally approving enterprise agreements within two to three weeks of their lodgement.

Step 5: Once approved by the Fair Work Commission, the agreement commences its lawful operation 7 days thereafter.  

Yes. If you are employed with your same employer covered by the agreement at the time the agreement commences (that is, 7 days after the approval of the Fair Work Commission), your wage increase will be back paid to 1 January 2024.

The back payment will be made shortly after the new agreement commences. We are still finalising the timetable for payments, but we would expect it to occur in the first month of the agreement coming into effect.

The usual industrial approach is that to receive back payment you must be employed at the time the new agreement commences. That is 7 days after approval by the Fair Work Commission.

Recent litigation has potentially clouded this position. We are seeking clarification from the Employers representatives and the Department of Health on their approach to this issue.  

That said, we would strongly encourage you to not leave your employment hastily at this time as it may jeopardise the payment of the agreed entitlements if you are not employed at a public hospital covered by the agreement at the commencement of the new agreement.

We expect that all payments due on commencement will occur shortly after commencement. We are still finalising the timetable for payments, but we would expect it to occur in the first month of the agreement coming into effect.

This approach would be for both the:

• the lump sum cash payment, and
• the additional $2,000 cash payment in lieu of the Professional Support Allowance for 2023-2024 financial year.  

We have an agreed pool of over $1.4 million to be equitably distributed across all Dentists and Specialist Dentists. This reflects 0.5% of total agreement costs.

The value of this payment will differ dependent on your classification and we are still finalising this information. Our intention is to try to mirror the 0.5% relative to earnings under the agreements. (i.e., the amount received increases according to increased classification.)

For General Dentists, we are proposing to have different lump sum payments across classifications, ranging from approximately $4,000 to $8,000 depending on your classification and pay point. The average payment would be $5,800. These indicative amounts are based on full time employees, and they will be pro-rata and subject to taxation.   

For Specialist Dentists, we are proposing a flat payment of $16,442 per Specialist Dentists, given the average employment of a specialist dentist at RDHM is 0.4 EFT the average payment would be approximately $6,500.

These indicative amounts are based on full time employees, and they will be applied on a pro-rata and subject to taxation.  

In accordance with government wages policy, we were obligated to find offsets to assist in funding these outcomes.

Consistent with the approach taken in other public health agreements (for example, nurses/midwives, Managers and Administrative Officers), to offset the cost of the additional week of annual leave the public holiday penalty under the agreement will be reduced from 250% to 200% for ordinary hours if worked on a public holiday (however the overtime penalty for working on a public will remain at 250%).

In addition, to standardise dental agreements with other public health agreements, Easter Saturday will not be recognised as an additional public holiday. This also aligns with the prescribed set of public holidays by the Victorian Government. Given the low level of work performed on public holidays across the sector, we believe employees will be significantly better off by virtue of accruing the additional week of annual leave (together with its loading).

We do not expect finalisation of the Community Health agreement to take anywhere near the same amount of time it has taken to reach settlement for public hospitals. This is because

1. most of the work has been done, and
2. the community health sector is not burdened with the same bureaucratic regime as public hospitals.

Discussions have commenced with the representatives of Community Health. Note: these are the same representatives who act for public hospitals, the VHIA.  We understand Community Health employers were waiting to see the outcome for public hospitals before they concluded discussions.

Our position has been very clear: we want Community Health Dentists to achieve the same entitlements and conditions as Dentists working in public hospitals.

We will keep you informed about any updates.

Unfortunately, delay is a feature of enterprise bargaining in the Victorian public sector. This is further exacerbated by the public sector employers being bound not just was the Government’s wages policy, but also by its enterprise bargaining framework. This framework requires approval not only from Hospitals, but also the Department of Health, the Department of Treasury and Finance and also the central government agency of Industrial Relations Victoria at various stages in the negotiations (from commencement of negotiations through to approval of the agreement).

This process also took longer than normal, due to the change in Government Wages Policy. You will remember that in 2022 we negotiated an interim outcome of a one off 2 per cent wage increase, this was due to the Victorian Government wages policy only offering a 1.5 per cent wage increase each year for four year agreement at that time. That was simply unacceptable. Accordingly, we deferred reaching agreement because we believed we could achieve greater wage outcomes under the new policy, which was released in 2023.

In addition to the bureaucratic processes, we must also now satisfy the legislative requirements of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) in order to validly make the enterprise agreement. This process has statutory time frames that must be met.

During bargaining we maintained our claim for DHSV to directly employ Specialist Dentists in training under the enterprise agreement. Our advocacy on this issue has been consistent and vigorous. This has included up to meeting with the Minister for Health on the matter.

Regrettably, the complexities of government policy and the restrictions in government funding available in the agreement process has meant that we were unable to achieve our desired outcome in this agreement.

However, we have secured a commitment, which will be enshrined in the agreement, that will compel the parties to engage in good faith discussions with all stakeholders (for example, DHSV, Department of Health, the University of Melbourne etc) in order to develop a future of model of employment that would satisfy all parties. While a new model is not expected to be implemented in this agreement, it will lay the foundations for significant gains in the next agreement.

We look forward to talking with you and keeping you updated about the next steps towards formally approving the enterprise agreement.

EBA stands for Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.  Enterprise bargaining is an Australian term for a form of collective bargaining, in which wages and working conditions are negotiated between employees (and/or their representatives, like a trade union or professional association) and employer organisations (and/or their representatives).

Once established, EBAs are legally binding for employers and employees that are covered by the agreement.

Unlike “awards”, which provide similar standards for all workers in the entire industry covered by a specific award, the EBAs can apply only to employees of one-singular employer, or groups of employers that might all agree to the terms of the EBAs. 

Enterprise agreements can vary in the duration they apply for. In public sector dentistry in Victoria our EBAs generally apply for four-years.  Most recently that was from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2022. Even though the most recent set of agreements have technically (or “nominally”) expired, the conditions and entitlements of the 2018-2022 agreements will continue to apply until such time that a new agreement is finalised.

Enterprise Agreement  negotiations are unique in Australia in that while bargaining, a group of employees can, without legal penalties, undertake industrial action in pursuit of their claims.  An application to take protected industrial action needs to be approved by the Fair Work Commission before it can be lawfully undertaken. 

The Fair Work Act 2009 provides a simple, flexible, and fair framework that assists employers and employees to bargain in good faith to make an enterprise agreement. Employers, employees, and their bargaining representatives are involved in the process of bargaining for a proposed enterprise agreement.

An employer must notify their employees of their right to be represented by a bargaining representative no later than 14 days after the official start of bargaining. The Notice of Employee Representational Rights (NERR) should be given to each current employee who is covered by the agreement.

Each party (or side of the bargaining table) puts forward a Log of Claims which is like a summary wish list of what they would like the next round of agreements to say. Together the parties go through the claims and the agreements and in instances where both parties agree to the proposed changes we move on to the next claim or clause. In circumstances where there is no agreement, parties seek to find a compromise.

Some changes are considered cost items (as in, it will cost the organisation, or the funder) to make the change. After the bargaining parties reach an agreement in principle the Government calculates the total cost of implementing the proposed agreement at public sector hospitals and if what’s proposed complies with the Government’s policies (such as the current wage policy) they will approve the costs and work can start to finalise the new agreements.

If agreement cannot be reached, employees are entitled to apply to take protected industrial action.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) is Australia’s national workplace relations tribunal, and the FWC regulates this process. 

The finalised EBAs are publicly available documents that make reference within the document itself regarding who and where they apply to. In Victoria there are eight different agreements that apply to 41 organisations that provide public dental services. The Fair Work Commission (FWC) website has copies of all the agreements: Find an enterprise agreement | Fair Work Commission (fwc.gov.au)

If you have trouble using the search function on the website, you could also ask a member of the Human Resources or People and Culture team of your organisation to provide you with the agreement that applies to you.

ADAVB Council  continues to support our public sector members and colleagues by ensuring that ADAVB is funded and resourced in negotiations and representing publicly employed dentists during this round (2022-2026) and the last round (2018-2022) of bargaining.

The ADAVB bargaining teams consists of ADAVB CEO Matt Hopcraft, ADAVB Policy & Research Manager Katy Theodore and Professionals Australia Victorian Director Scott Crawford. Professionals Australia has been contracted again to provide Industrial Relations expertise and advice. They are a national union and professional association that represents the interests of many professions with a strong presence in the health sector, including representing medical scientists and researchers, biomedical engineers, translators and interpreters and management professionals at Ambulance Victoria. 

The ADAVB Public Dentistry Committee acts as the main reference group for decisions regarding strategy and approach to bargaining.

To be abundantly clear, if you are employed as a dentist at an organisation covered by an EBA – you are involved (whether you want to be active in your involvement or not). ADAVB relies on your involvement i.e., taking actions recommended by the ADAVB that are intended to benefit you directly, as well as your colleagues, and the future of public sector dentistry so that it can continue to be a viable career choice for dentists.

There is a wide spectrum of involvement, and again – to be explicitly clear – your inaction also has consequences (that are not aligned with our efforts or objectives). 

The minimum ask is that you:

1. appoint ADAVB as your Bargaining Representative, and
2. vote as recommended by ADAVB in all EBA related ballots.

By representing the largest possible proportion of public sector dentists (at any given workplace, and across the state) the bargaining power is stronger – making it more likely to get proposed changes included in the new agreements. This is why ADAVB is accepting nominations from non-members, because it benefits ADAVB members by maximising bargaining power.

In addition the minimum recommended involvement listed above (points a and b), you also have the opportunity to read and respond to EBA related correspondence (which comes in many formats such as direct email messages from ADAVB, attend EBA update webinars, and/or contact members of the Public Dentistry Committee to make your opinions and preferences known.

In the first instance, you should speak to the Human Resources or People and Culture team/department/representative at the organisation where you are employed for questions regarding your entitlements under the EBA. 

In the second instance, if you have questions or concerns about the advice you receive from your employer, members are invited to contact the ADA HR Advisory Service provided by HR Assured.  E: hrhotline@ada.org.au or call 1300 232 462.

In the third instance members are invited to contact ADAVB at advocacy@adavb.org with questions, concerns, or feedback.