In PFA’s recently published A-League Women’s report, PFA Executive member and Adelaide United’s Dylan Holmes shared insights into the importance of Collective Bargaining Agreements, and their impact on the A-League Women competition.
By Dylan Holmes
The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) has been paramount to the success and growth of the A-League Women’s competition over the last eight years. My first year playing in the A-League was the 2014-15 season, where there was no CBA in place to ensure minimum standards across the league.
As a result, the majority of players did not get paid to play, we only played 12 games, many of which were played on synthetic pitches. Travel arrangements were largely inadequate and not conducive to an elite level competition and there were no minimum medical standards.
ILIJOSKI: Confronting extreme heat, as a player and activist
CLOUGH: Why I left the A-League Women for the USL Super League
After the introduction of the first CBA, the players were guaranteed minimum standards, as well as guaranteed that these standards would continue to improve over time. The agreement ensures all clubs, as well as the league itself, uphold these standards. As a result, the A-League Women’s competition has grown significantly.
Click here to read and download the PFA’s A-League Women report.
The strong involvement of the players in shaping the CBA has made us feel like we have an active role and a voice when it comes to what the league looks like and what it will look like into the future. The CBA has achieved so many things for the players, including minimum medical standards, a full home and away season, increases to the minimum wage and so much more.
READ MORE
PFA REPORT: Full-time professionalism top of the agenda for A-League Women players
STOPPAGE TIME: A PFA Report on the A-Leagues and Climate Change
Compliance with the CBA is so important to the players, because it means the clubs are invested and proactive in ensuring the players have the best working conditions possible to perform to their best. When clubs fall short in certain areas, it is incredibly frustrating and distressing for the players because it goes against everything that we fought to achieve in ensuring minimum standards in our workplace. It can also become an uncomfortable situation for the players to report non-compliance of their clubs to the PFA.
The CBA works to ensure that the players have optimum working conditions to perform at their best on the field, so when clubs don’t comply with the CBA it feels disrespectful to the players who sacrifice so much to play the sport professionally
