{"id":714001,"date":"2026-06-04T04:20:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/714001\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T04:20:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:20:30","slug":"union-seeks-to-have-optometrists-recognised-under-health-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/714001\/","title":{"rendered":"Union seeks to have optometrists recognised under health award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Health Services Union (HSU) says it is mounting a formal challenge at the Fair Work Commission to have optometrists explicitly recognised under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award.<\/p>\n<p>A HSU media release said the move could fundamentally reshape working conditions across Australia\u2019s corporate-dominated optometry sector.<\/p>\n<p>It said the campaign, launched under the banner Focus on Optometry, marked a significant escalation in a growing movement among employed optometrists who say years of corporate consolidation have eroded their professional autonomy, pushed them toward retail-style sales targets, and left their workplace entitlements lagging far behind those of comparable health professionals.<\/p>\n<p>The HSU said it would\u00a0 lodge an application to vary the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (HPSS Award) with the Fair Work Commission in June 2026.<\/p>\n<p>If successful, that would see optometrists explicitly listed as health professionals under the award for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>That would unlock minimum pay floors, weekend and public holiday rates, guaranteed breaks, fair rostering provisions, and structured career pathways.<\/p>\n<p>The Fair Work Commission process was expected to take a year or more following lodgement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Services Union (HSU) says it is mounting a formal challenge at the Fair Work Commission to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-714001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}