Up to 500 public mental health workers across Victoria held a statewide strike on 17 June, demanding that Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan deliver fair pay and urgent reform to the state’s overwhelmed mental health system.
Organised by the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU), workers travelled from across Victoria to rally outside Trades Hall before marching to Parliament House.
The latest offer from the Labor State Government is “appalling and disrespectful”, Karolyn, an occupational therapist lead, told Solidarity.
“They’re offering us (OTs and social workers) 15 per cent over four years while nurses—in the same role—are being offered 28 per cent.”
In addition to fair wages, the workers are demanding safer staffing levels and increased government funding—as well as more action to implement the recommendations of the 2021 Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system.
Occupational therapists, mental health nurses, social workers, lived experience workers, and admin staff from inpatient units, aged care facilities, emergency teams, and community outreach services all joined the strike.
Workers from the different disciplines addressed the rally. One nurse warned that the government’s position, “threatens to tear the heart out of our mental health system”.
Victoria’s director of lived experience delivered one of the most powerful speeches, saying: “This government wants our hope without our power, our trauma in brochures and our pain in press conferences, our stories without our leadership, our labour without fair pay.”
One group carried a banner reading “772 too many,” referencing last year’s suicide rate in Victoria.
The strike followed 11 months of negotiations between HACSU and the State Labor Government.
A previous offer was rejected in late 2024, and an earlier statewide strike in April brought only minor concessions.
HACSU State Secretary Paul Healy explained: “Mental health workers have had it. It’s clear this government doesn’t value the critical work they do and have no real appetite for reforming the system. Our members will not stop fighting for each other, consumers and their families to deliver an equitable system for all. The government needs to stop trying to split our workforces with disrespectful offers or they’ll face a reckoning”.
The Allan Government says there is no more money for mental health due to the state’s debt levels. It wants to cut spending on public sector workers.
The union needs to step up the strike action to win.
By Tom Fiebig
