Health Services Union heads to tribunal to fight parking fees for workers at public hospitals

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

From Friday, frontline health employees will have to pay about $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.

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

"They haven't consulted effectively, they have to 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," he said.

"To reintroduce parking fees this time when the [health] system is in such dire straits and in such crisis … 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 during the pandemic to support frontline staff in hospitals. 

But with the COVID-19 emergency declaration being revoked last month, the state government had planned to pull the incentives. 

Hospital workers previously had parking fees subsidised but the cost increased dramatically in 2019, the union claimed.

Mr Elrick said new workers employed during the pandemic would now need to find extra cash in their budget to pay for parking. 

Scrapping parking fees at major shopping centres

Under changes due to go before parliament next week, 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 the changes could lead to legal challenges by centre owners "based on the principles of property rights".

"A few questions to answer about this. It seems very popular on the face of it, but can it actually be delivered?" he said.

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.

"Income that would be generated from paid parking at Tea Tree Plaza Westfield goes to overseas shareholders," he said.

In a statement, Tea Tree Plaza's owner, Westfield, revealed more than a third of its car parks were taken up by people who were not customers.

Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association SA secretary Josh Peake said the idea that workers in shopping centres would need to pay $35 a day for parking was "outrageous".

"They'd either have to pay that money or risk their health and safety and cause chaos by parking in suburban streets," he said.