Please note that the most recent Salary scales is here.

2000-2001 introduction

This is the twelfth survey of salaries paid to workers in Australia's library and information services sector. Like its predecessors, the survey is arranged by type of service, by state or territory and alphabetically by institution.

In our last survey we reported on the unprecedented change which was then taking place in the nation's wage-fixing procedures and in the laws which underpin them. That trend has since continued and accelerated. The broad range of employment conditions is now distinctly wider and more complex. The concept of 'typical conditions' is declining.

The rates of pay shown here cover a wide range of organisations in which industrial awards, while continuing to operate for some, are frequently being expanded or replaced by local agreements negotiated at the enterprise level. Increasingly, library workers are being forced to confront the reality of individualised employment arrangements.

These developments have fuelled strong demand for assistance from ALIA's industrial service and this can be expected to continue. In recognition of changes in the market for library and information specialists, this latest edition of Salary scales includes, for the first time, sections dealing with non-award and casual work.

ALIA invites all of its members - both individual and institutional - to avail themselves of the Association's National Office industrial advisory service in determining working conditions and establishing employment contracts.

June 2000