Tasmania this week faces growing labour disputes across its public and semi-public sectors.
The Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) is criticising the state government for delays in a new wage offer for health and community service workers, saying the inaction is damaging morale and exacerbating staff shortages.
Meanwhile, Hydro Tasmania employees have rejected a new enterprise agreement and have voted on a protected action ballot to take industrial action. In the education sector, Tasmanian public school principals have started industrial action in protest of a new performance metric they call unfair and unachievable.
Media release – Health and Community Services Union, 13 August 2025
Bargaining delay for health workers puts vital community services at risk
The Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) has slammed the state government for dragging its feet on delivering a wage offer to public health and community service workers, saying that the delay is a calculated insult to the very people who keep Tasmania’s vital services running.
Despite months of negotiations – which commenced in December 2024 – and most public sector agreements expiring on 30 June 2025, workers are still waiting for clarity, and the prolonged inaction is exacerbating workforce shortages and undermining morale among those employees.
“There was more than enough time before the state election was called to make an offer and this delay is inexcusable. To not have a formal offer at this stage is a breach of good faith bargaining,”
said Robbie Moore, HACSU State Secretary.
“Our health and community services workers are dedicated, hardworking, and have been negotiating in good faith, yet Jeremy Rockliff seems content to sit on his hands while these workers struggle to make ends meet.
Without a competitive pay rise, we will continue to lose skilled health and community service professionals to mainland states offering better wages for the same work, further weakening the care and support Tasmanians need and expect,” he added.
HACSU is calling on Jeremy Rockliff to immediately present a fair wage offer and end the cycle of delay that is undermining our public health and community services.
Media release – Hydro Tasmania, 12 August 2025
Hydro Tasmania continues enterprise agreement negotiations
Hydro Tasmania has been engaged in negotiations over the last six months for a new enterprise agreement that covers around 690 of its 1200 employees.
Over this period, it discussed more than 100 separate claims from independent and union bargaining representatives.
It took an offer to vote on July 28, with an outcome of 43% ‘yes’ and 57% ‘no’. The offer included:
- annual base salary increase of 2.4% in 2025 (aligned to March CPI)
- 2026 and 2027 base salary increases aligned to CPI, with a minimum increase of 2% and up to 3.5% each year
- additional base salary increases of 1.5% in 2026 and 2027 for eligible staff who achieve all three performance goals (more than 95% meet all three goals each year)
- increases to on-call and travel allowances
- a holistic classification review of all job families delivered within 12 months, with any salary uplifts backdated to the date of the vote.
As part of the overall offer, Hydro Tasmania also committed to:
- additional base salary increases of 1.5% in 2025 for eligible staff who achieve all three performance goals under the current enterprise agreement
- additional market based adjustments of up to 5% of base salary for around 100 engineering and trade staff
- $4,000 up front payment to eligible employees.
Executive General Manager People and Corporate Affairs, Ruth Groom, said it would continue to negotiate in good faith.
“We believe it was a strong offer that supported staff to manage cost of living pressures and offered good progression through the salary bands.
“But we respect the employees’ vote and have returned to the bargaining table. We met with independent and union representatives last week and have another meeting scheduled for Thursday,” said Groom.
Hydro Tasmania understands that the CEPU and Professionals Australia have applied to the Fair Work Commission to conduct a Protected Action Ballot. If the order is approved, unions will be able to conduct a ballot of their members around the type of protected industrial action they wish to take.
“We respect the right of employees to take industrial action and assure Tasmanians that energy security and safety are our top priorities.”
“We have plenty of capacity within our energy network and within our business to manage Tasmanian demand.”
Media release – Australian Education Union Tasmania, 12 August 2025
“Gutted” principals launch industrial action over “close to impossible” test
Tasmanian public school principals have today launched industrial action in protest against DECYP’s (Department for Education, Children and Young People) completely arbitrary and unfair performance target that has resulted in half of Tasmania’s principals being prevented from passing their annual Performance Development Plan (PDP).
The school leadership community has been shattered by DECYP’s determination to assess principals against a target (known as the “system-wide goal”) that is close to impossible for some schools to achieve.
“Principals are doing the best that they can, but they’re now being told that they’re failing because their performance is being assessed by a one-off test, not by looking at all of their school’s actual achievements,” said AEU Tasmania President, David Genford.
“There are principals who have gotten excellent results on their External School Reviews, or who have students have fantastic NAPLAN test results, or who have increased school attendance, who can easily demonstrate that they have improved outcomes at their schools – and yet they have failed their PDP because the system-wide goal wasn’t achieved. This isn’t fair.”
“I feel that my professional worth and credibility is now being questioned for the first time,” said one principal.
“I’m gutted,” said another principal. “This doesn’t reflect the feedback I’ve gotten from my community and the Department.”
Another asked, “How can this contradict the complimentary findings of our External School Review?”
The AEU is aware of a significant number of long-serving principals who have been prevented from passing their PDP for the first time ever in their careers as a result of the system-wide goal.
“We would never subject students to this kind of assessment,” said Genford.
“Students have NAPLAN tests, normal school tests, assignments, and opportunities to speak to teachers. We don’t test them against a single, fundamentally broken metric and then tell them they’ve failed.
“It’s devastating. DECYP’s insistence on using a broken metric to assess principals’ performance shows total disregard for principal wellbeing and the ongoing workload crisis in Tasmania’s schools.”
DECYP implemented the system-wide goal without consultation earlier this year, despite being warned by the Australian Education Union several times that the test would set principals up for failure.
Principals launched the first phase of industrial action at midnight last night, which will remain in place indefinitely. This initial phase of industrial action means AEU principals will no longer:
- Attend principal briefings, meetings or forums
- Undertake work associated with principal PDPs
- Undertake work associated with PDP for staff (except for staff who need to complete PDP to receive a pay rise)
- Facilitate any State Government MP/MLC visits to schools or colleges
Principals will continue to implement and escalate industrial action until DECYP implements a reasonable system-wide goal.
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