At a meeting with SA Health Chief Executive, Mr David Swan on Wednesday 11 May 2011, PSA representatives raised concerns and suggested solutions.

1. No Forced Redundancy: To ensure that members have the same conditions if they transfer to the new Community Corporation, the “No Forced Redundancy” guarantee by government and in clause 9.1.2 of the current (2010) SA State Government Enterprise Agreement should still apply. If the new employer will not give such a guarantee then the State Government must guarantee that if any ex-employee of the State Government is in the future deemed to be “surplus to requirement” by the new employer, then they will be re-deployed by the SA Government with no loss of entitlements.

2. Secondment: PSA asks that if further secondment is sought by a PSA member after 18 months with the new employer, that Country Health should agree to this.

3. Transfer Payment: PSA requests that the $15,000 “incentive payment” be available in full for up to 2 years, otherwise current employees may be pressured into making the wrong decision. If a member makes the decision to transfer on 30 June 2013 for example, they should be treated no less favourably than if they had made such decision earlier.

4. Superannuation Scheme: PSA states that members should have the choice to continue in the SA Government, Super SA scheme and that both employer and employee contributions can continue to be made. This should not be affected by transferring to the new corporation.

6. Surplus to requirement payments: As the SA Government has made the decision that positions will be transferred to the new employer, i.e. the Community Corporation, and the positions are therefore no longer required by the State Government, PSA members should have the option of receiving payments at the same rate applying to any other employees who are deemed “surplus to requirement” as an incentive to resign.

6. New industrial Agreement: Country Health SA is currently writing a new Industrial Agreement to cover employees if they transfer.  This will need to be agreed to by PSA members. Currently the conditions of employment are contained within three documents:
(a) The SA Government Wages Parity (Salaried) Enterprise Agreement 2010 (EA)
(b) SA Public Sector Salaried Employees Interim Award (SAPSSEI)
(c) SA Health (Health Care Act) Human Resources Manual.
All applicable conditions will need to be in the new agreement. This is essential for both employer and employee, its is not appropriate nor advisable for employees to transfer to a new employer until they can make an informed decision, which needs to include what their new employment conditions will be.

7. Dispute Status Quo: The PSA advised the Department of Health Chief Executive, Mr David Swan, that if these issues are not resolved the PSA would be in dispute and could refer the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC). The status quo as per clause 26.2 of the EA apply and no changes could be made until the matter is resolved.

8. Telephone Conference: As advised in recent briefs, a telephone conference is being arranged with Country Health and our members. PSA will advise members by email of the date and time.