Overview

The WA Country Health Service (WACHS) offers:

• Competitive salaries
• Region-specific allowances and incentives
• Flexible work arrangements
• Generous leave allowances
• Learning and development tailored to your specific needs
• Career advancement opportunities.

Professional development opportunities

• Develop a broad range of clinical skills and knowledge in a variety or practice settings, including hospital and community.
• Develop professional competencies such as research, health promotion and education, student supervision, quality improvement and service development
• Develop innovative practices, resourcefulness and strong problem-solving ability
• Develop multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary teamwork skills.
• Learn about a range of cultures
• Tailored learning and development including mentoring and networking through the Transition to Practice (T2P) program.
• T2P aims to support the transition to rural and remote practice. It provides participants the opportunity to consolidate, apply and learn new clinical, leadership, supervisory and quality improvement skills.
• Career advancement e.g. research, project work, senior and managerial roles.

Salary

Allied health professionals are employed under the Health Service Union (HSU) of Western Australia Award (Specified Callings). View the full Health Service Union-WA Health State Industrial Agreement on the Department of Health Awards and Agreements library. The current salaries (on and from 01 July 2023) are:

Four-year trained degrees (and masters graduate entry programs) commence at P1.2.

P2 and P3 positions are classified as senior-level positions.

For each level (e.g. within P1), the employee progresses to the next increment per year of service until the ceiling is reached. Progression between levels (e.g. from P1 to P2) is through application and promotion to senior roles.

In addition to the salary, all employees receive the mandatory 11.5% superannuation and are eligible for salary packaging to increase their take home pay.

Salary packaging 

WA Country Health Service staff are able to salary package a proportion of their salary. Salary packaging involves restructuring your salary by choosing to receive your salary as a combination of cash and approved fringe benefits that are paid out of your pre-tax salary (essentially, you do not pay tax on a proportion of your salary that is allocated against a particular benefit).

Benefits may include: mortgage or personal loan payments, general living expenses, motor car expenses, HECS repayments and many more. To find out more about salary packaging (including package calculators) visit:

• Paywise
• SmartSalary.

Leave

Allied health professionals are entitled to:

• 4 weeks annual leave
• 3.5 days leave loading
• 15 days personal leave (including sick days)
• 10 public holidays per year
• 14 weeks paid parental leave, up to 52 weeks total parental leave for birth/adoption of a child (after 12 months continuous service)
• 13 weeks long-service leave after 10 years continuous service, then 13 weeks for every 7 subsequent years
• Professional development leave (16 hours/2 days per year)
• Study leave (5 hours per week; work-life balance)

Additional leave allowances (annual leave and travel days) are also available for specific locations in country WA.

Conditions and benefits

In accordance to the HSU-WA Health Industrial Agreement, WA Country Health Service staff are entitled to a number of conditions and benefits associated with employment.

You may be eligible for the following State and Commonwealth Government benefits dependent on your location of employment:

• Air conditioning subsidies
• Home Ownership Subsidy Scheme
• Subsidised rental accommodation
• Zone or special area tax offset
• District allowances

There are also benefits tailored specifically to suit allied health professionals in each employment district and remote area of WA.  To obtain a copy of the specific benefits, please visit the WA Health Awards and Agreements library, or speak with your line manager or human resources department.