Beoz

You can get £87.55 per week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) if you’re too ill to work. It’s paid by your employer for up to 28 weeks.

How does one live on that?

Buzzy--Bee

I think that is job-dependent and the same in the UK. I work less hours here than I did in the UK for more money.

Strange. I have always had everything bulk-billed, not paid for this sort of thing at all yet, and our family has had plenty of this sort of healthcare.

BB

Beoz

Yep me too, but this isn't just an Aussie thing. I used to do the same thing in the UK. In fact I worked for one place in the UK where I did complete 3 or 4 all nighters. 9am start, finish 10am the next day to get a project out the door. Again not a UK thing, just something that was needed for the good of the project.

Beoz

The blood tests and x-rays I have had have all been on medicare I believe. MRI scan had to get paid for though.

Amazulu

Long service leave?
Employment laws are stacked heavily in favour of employees
GDP PPP is higher than the UK
Average disposable income too
Compulsory penalty rates higher than UK
Unfortunately I only do a 40hr week but wish it was 45hrs - or more
If you work extra without getting paid you're mental. I have never, ever worked one second without getting paid

Amazulu

Yes, blood tests bulk-billed at Path West (although I think SJOG charge extra)
X-rays are not free but cost is not too onerous (and you are paying more for the Radiologist's report rather than the actual picture)

bcworld

One thing I don't like. Give me 5 weeks a year annual leave instead of 4 and I'll gladly opt out!

ozzieeagle

You can get those tests bulk billed you just have to find the correct service provider. When a doctor prescribes a xray or blood tests you dont have to go to the provider he stipulates. You can take your form to ANY provider and they will still do the tests as prescribed. So it pays to ring around and find your local bulk billed provider.

Personally I get 5 weeks holiday per year, plus public holidays and right now I'm sitting on 180 days long service leave, which I can take at half pay if I want and double the length of time. IE: I can take a full year off at half pay after 19 years. These conditions are provided by Australia Post. We also get 14.5 pct superannuation, the average full time postal worker (Postie/Night sorter) is sitting on an income of circa 70K per, (As long as your doing the average amount of overtime, of about 4 hours per week averaged over a year, so for 42 hours per week) annum Plus 14.5 pct employer super. Compare that to the Royal mail in the UK. We also get holiday homes and other perks at a very cheap rate. That would apply to all the fulltimers in the Aus post work force of circa 35,000 employees, which is one of, if not the largest employer in Australia..

My wife a Mental health Nurse earns more, has similar condtions and has slightly more Long service leave after 20 years in the Melbourne Health System.

I'm not sure that anywhere else in the world gives it's employees 6 months of off work on full pay after 20 years servce ? On top of their normal holiday entitlement.

Edit forgot to add, after 20 years and not taking many sickies during her time in the Government hospital system my wife is sitting on circa 35 weeks sick pay entitlement. I'm sitting on about 30 weeks.

Amazulu

Can you get x-rays bulk-billed? I'd be interested to find out more about this

Super is often overlooked when somparing salary/packages. For most people it is least an extra 9.5% on top of salary - a not insignificant sum

Total super is now close to $2 trillion - much bigger than our GDP of about $1.5 trillion. In anyone's language, that's big

Amazulu

It's not a good system but I'm a contractor and don't get it anyway

bcworld

I know we've had the LSL conversation before, but it will likely never apply to me...so let me opt out. As far as I'm concerned LSL is stacked in the EMPLOYERS favour...here in Victoria I'm pretty sure I could be made redundant after 7 years and not get a cent for any accrued LSL...doesn't sound fair to me!

In the UK I would have 5 weeks A/L per year, here 4. In your example, after 20 years that would be 20 weeks additional paid leave I'd have accrued (or taken)...I'd far rather this than a LSL carrot dangling somewhere in the future.

Beoz

Yep. Had to get x-rays done every time I visited the ortho surgeon after an injury and the x-ray man just asked for my medicare card each time. No cash was paid.

Beoz

Yeah me too. You have to stay a full 10 years at a single company to get it. Screw that. Give me the extra week annual leave any day.

I think (in NSW anyway) you get your accrued LSL if they boot you.

Amazulu

Cool. Looks like I need to look further than my local x-ray place

At my medical centre there's:
My doctor - part bulk-bill, part charge extra (depends on type of consultation. If I'm just getting my prescription renewed, they off just BB)
A SJOG Path lab that charges
A Path West lab that doesn't
A small hospital with an x-ray department that charges extra

A bit all over the place to be honest

OzTennis

Of course LSL originated in Australia, NZ and India to allow those working in the colonial service to have an extended stay in Blighty. i.e. we have LSL because of Ping Pong Poms which is ironic that LSL is questioned by same.

"Long service leave is a benefit unique to Australia and New Zealand (and possibly some public servants in India) and relates to their colonial heritage. Long service leave developed from the concept of furlough, which stems from the Dutch word verlof (meaning leave) and its usage originates in leave granted from military service.

In the 19th century, furlough as a benefit as it is now known, was a privilege granted by legislation to the colonial and Indian Services. In Australia, the benefits were first granted to Victorian and South Australian civil servants. The nature of the leave allowed civil servants to sail 'home' to England, safe in the knowledge that they were able to return to their positions upon their return to Australia.[citation needed]

The concept spread beyond the public service over the period 1950 to 1975, mainly as a result of pressure from employees seeking comparability with the public service.

Nowadays, long service leave is ingrained in Australian culture and is specified by state based and some federal legislation. Interestingly, it is often not taken when it falls due, leading to calls to reduce long-service entitlement in the public sector."