This week the union has heard from a number of distressed members who have undertaken the clinical exam for ALS Team Manager (TM) positions.
The exam is part of the entry requirement for the TM selection process and the union believes you cannot progress unless you pass it. Furthermore, the union has heard that if applicants do not get 50% on their score, then they will be put on an education plan.
Members have told the union that the exam includes questions that are not reflective of, or relevant to, the ALS TM role. Naturally, the union is unable to give an example of these questions, while the recruitment process is underway, but many union members have said that they left the exam feeling deflated and inadequate when they were unable to answer clinical questions that were not related to the role of ALS TM at all.
Many applicants have been in acting roles at AV and have been working hard to support their staff through the pandemic, as well as providing an operational response. In such difficult circumstances as these, the union believes that it is unreasonable for AV to expect prospective applicants to have a level of knowledge that is well above their expertise.
It is the unions’ view that the clinical exam fails to comply with the public sector employment principles which require AV to treat employees fairly and reasonably, and that it is an example of how AV intimidate and belittle on a systemic scale.
Following the VEOHRC review into AV’s workplace culture, members have heard statements of how the senior executive will make everything “ok”. All the while, harm is still being inflicted upon well-meaning staff. AV’s lack of insight into the damage they cause through their unreasonable expectations is astounding. It validates the expressions of members who say, “nothing ever changes.”
The unreasonableness of the exam questions highlights the unfair nature of AV internal recruitment which is an issue the AEAV has been writing to AV about since 2019. It’s time for AV to start listening to their workforce. Next week, the union will be writing to AV again, expressing members concerns. We encourage all staff affected by this issue to reach out and give the union a call for a confidential chat.
