Child, Youth and Family staff to strike on Friday
More than 2,000 Child, Youth and Family staff are taking strike action this Friday following a breakdown of their pay
talks.
The 24-hour strike from 8am is being undertaken by members of the Public Service Association (PSA). The strike will
affect all offices nation-wide, the Department’s call centre and its residences.
PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff said it is ironic that strike action is being taken in the same week as Social
Workers Day (today, Wednesday 28 September 2005).
“Child, Youth and Family staff do the toughest job in social work, looking after the most vulnerable, disadvantaged and
difficult children in our society.
“Despite this their pay rates remain significantly behind other social work and support personnel employed in the public
sector. Social work staff employed by the Department have not had an increase to their pay scales since 2001 and the
last increase to administrative and other support staff pay rates was in 2003.
“It is past time the gap was closed, but Child, Youth and Family are refusing to pay their staff salaries commensurate
with those paid to others in the public sector.
“The recent pay offer for mental and allied health workers employed by district health boards, including a large number
of social workers, will see the gap widen even further if it is ratified.
“The structure of the Child, Youth and Family pay system is also antiquated. Social workers in the state sector progress
through their pay system through a series of annual increments, but Child, Youth and Family remain obsessed with
performance pay.
“Performance pay systems have been shown to deliver arbitrary results and to entrench pay inequities which is a
particular concern in a female-dominated workforce like Child, Youth and Family.
“Since 1999 Child, Youth and Family has received large funding increases to improve its services. All staff have worked
very hard to turn around what was previously a poorly performing agency.
“It is time for the Department to invest some of its increased resources in its most critical asset, it’s pool of
committed and professional staff, because if it does not it will lose them to less stressful better paid positions
elsewhere in the public sector,” Richard Wagstaff said.