The Department has put an offer on the table in enterprise bargaining. Delegates have gone through it, line by line, and want members to see exactly what it means.
Watch delegates break down the offer:
An offer doesn't get better on its own. It gets better because members make it clear they're not accepting the status quo.
Protected Industrial Action isn't separate from what happens at the bargaining table — it's what changes what happens at the bargaining table. Every every signature, every sign on a wall tells the Department something the log of claims alone can't: that members are organised, paying attention, and prepared to keep going.
Stage One is already underway. The more visible it is — the more workplaces taking part, the louder the message — the harder it becomes for the Department to treat these issues as something to be reviewed later rather than fixed now.
For years, members have raised serious concerns through surveys, consultative committees, and working groups about workloads, staffing, workplace safety, administrative support, pay parity, and the resources needed to do the job properly.
Look closely at this offer, and most of those concerns are met with commitments to review, communicate or educate existing entitlements — not commitments to fix the underlying problems. Most proposals sit outside the certified agreement entirely. That matters. Union members have asked for clear, enforceable commitments. What's on the table is a "trust us" approach that issues may be considered later.
What's missing from this offer is action and investment to address the issues union members face each day.
Child Safety workers have spent years building a measurable approach to workload management. The offer doesn't build on that work; it removes it.
In this offer the current Child Safety Workload Management Policy and Manual gets scrapped, replaced by a new framework a working group will develop from scratch, sometime over the life of the agreement.
That's not progress. That's setting the workload fight back years, starting again from zero, with no guarantee of what we end up with — and no clear limit on the number and complexity of cases workers may be required to hold in the meantime.
Worst yet, there is no commitment to resources; we know too well that a tool without resources does not lower your workloads right now, nor does it drive better outcomes for children or families.
In relation to your claim for more admin and casework support staff, the offer proposes yet another review — due in 18 months. Union Members have already identified what's needed. Previous reviews and functional analysis have already examined these issues. The commitment does not introduce any funding for these positions, and does not lock the department into delivering these positions post the review.
Pay parity has been one of the clearest issues raised by Youth Justice workers. It isn't addressed in this offer, despite the Department acknowledging that there are attraction and retention issues.
The proposed workload approach relies on a generic Queensland Government tool that already applies today. It doesn't reflect the complexity of Youth Justice service delivery, and it doesn't provide any commitment to properly resource the work.
For Child Safety, the offer continues the existing Building Working Group, a mechanism already in place. For Youth Justice, the offer is limited to new intranet resources promoting existing ways to raise concerns. In both cases, telling workers about how to report a problem doesn't repair an unsafe workplace or deliver the buildings that are fit for purpose that staff need.
Members also asked for greater transparency on cultural safety — including reporting incidents through the Agency Consultative Committee, a joint union forum with departmental executives. The offer instead keeps this internal, reported to People and Culture and Human Resources.
Several other cultural claims members raised aren't addressed anywhere in the offer:
You can see the full offer letter here.
Here's an outline of what it covers:
At the end of the day, the Department had a choice in this offer. It could genuinely invest in the staff, systems and resourcing that Child Safety and Youth Justice actually need. Or it could stick with the status quo.
This offer is the status quo. More reviews of problems we've already proven. More education about entitlements we already have. In Child Safety, it's not even the status quo — it's a step backwards, with a workload tool we've already built stripped out from under us.
What to do next
Read the offer. Compare it against the claims members developed. Talk to your delegate. Ask whether it delivers meaningful solutions to the issues you experience every day.
We want to hear from you. Email your feedback on the offer to your.union@together.org.au.
Authorised Alex Scott, 43 Peel St South Brisbane 4101