Union to challenge $1,200 parking bill

A union is going to go to the South Australian Employment Tribunal to try and stop healthcare workers from having to pay to park at hospitals.

Frontline health employees will have to pay $1,200 a year to park at public hospitals in metropolitan Adelaide.

Health Services Union SA NT secretary Billy Elrick said the move was adding insult to injury after the state government proposed changes to laws to make it harder for large shopping centre owners to install paid parking.

Elrick said the union believed they had a legitimate case to bring to the tribunal because the government did not engage in consultation.

He said they haven't consulted effectively, but they have to do it under the enterprise agreement and we feel that there are no other options for us now but to escalate it to the South Australian Employment Tribunal.

When the health system is in crisis and the health system is in such dire straits, it is really insulting to the health workforce that has been tirelessly turning up day after day and giving it their most, only to be rewarded with a $1,200 parking bill. Free or subsidised parking fees were introduced in the pandemic to support frontline staff in hospitals.

The state government had planned to pull the incentives after the COVID 19 emergency declaration was revoked last month.

The parking fees were subsidised for hospital workers in the past but the cost went up dramatically in 2019 according to the union.

Elrick said that new workers who were employed during the epidemic would have to find extra cash in their budget to pay for parking.

It is due to be passed by the parliament next week, so council approval would be needed for shopping centre operators to charge anyone using their car park.

The crackdown was sparked by a push to introduce boom gates at Tea Tree Plaza in Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs last year.

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the changes would protect shoppers and workers.

In an environment where we've got rising cost of living, it's simply wrong that a major corporation of the size of Westfield is trying to fleece consumers and workers who work in shopping centres up to $9,000 a year just to park their cars, he said.

Opposition Leader David Speirs warned that the changes could lead to legal challenges by centre owners based on the principles of property rights. There are a few questions to answer about this. It seems popular on the face of it, but can it actually be delivered? He said something.

He accused the premier of hypocrisy over charging hospital workers for parking but not shoppers, but Mr Malinauskas pointed out that income from hospital parking went back into the health system.

The income generated from paid parking at Tea Tree Plaza Westfield goes to overseas shareholders, he said.

In a statement, Westfield, the owner of Tea Tree Plaza, said more than a third of its car parks were taken over by people who were not customers.

The idea that workers in shopping centres would have to pay $35 a day for parking was outrageous. He said that workers in shopping centres would have to pay that money and risk their health and safety and cause chaos in suburban streets.