Member Stories
Martijn Brinkhuis, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Neuropsychologist
“The Political and Financial Landscape has a Huge Influence on Bargaining”
Psychologists
The union for Psychologists
As a union we are a non-profit, democractic organisation powered by our members. We have a network of over 40 trained workplace delegates, and have a consistent record of advancing the working conditions and wellbeing of psychologists through collective bargaining, expert representation and professional voice.
We represent over 1000 psychologists working in:
- Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora
- Ministry of Education
- Healthcare New Zealand (Explore & Gains)
- Oranga Tamariki – The Ministry for Children
- Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC)
- Primary Health
- University of Canterbury
- Serco
- Ara Poutama – Department of Corrections
Collective agreements
ACC Psychology Advisors
Psychology Advisors’ Collective Agreement
24 Sept 2025 — 31 Mar 2026
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Explore (HealthcareNZ) Psychologists
Psychologists' Collective Agreement
01 Jul 2025 — 30 Jun 2026
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Ministry of Education Psychologists
Psychologists’ Collective Agreement
03 Apr 2023 — 30 Jun 2025
View
Oranga Tamariki Psychologists & Therapists
Psychologists & Therapists Collective Agreement
21 Jun 2023 — 01 Dec 2024
View
Te Whatu Ora Psychologists
Psychologists' Collective Agreement
01 Jan 2026 — 31 Dec 2027
View
Expert Representation
APEX provides expert representation and assistance to psychologists who have employment problems related to their conditions of work or professional issues. This includes support with HR, payroll, health and safety, disciplinary, workload or any other issue in your working life. Get in touch with your delegate for employment issues in the first instance.
Collective Bargaining
APEX negotiates collective agreements covering psychologists with each employer. These agreements allow us to bargain directly with the employer specifically around the issues that matter to our profession and to progress higher pay and better conditions for psychologists.
For example our collective agreements have specific provisions for:
- Salaries for psychologists and intern psychologists and overtime rates;
- Leave & Holidays – annual leave, public holidays, sick leave, long service leave and parental leave;
- Accelerated advancement and merit progression processes;
- Safe caseloads and workloads;
- Hours of work and on call payments;
- Continuing professional development allowances and leave;
- Supervision and payment for external supervision;
- Medico-legal indemnity provision;
- Workplace facilities and appropriate meeting spaces;
- Reimbursement for eyewear, travel expenses, NZPB registration and professional association costs;
- Redundancy protection and severance payments;
- Te Ao Māori provisions;
Psychologists are Better Together
Psychologists face a number of opportunities and challenges including growing demand for their services across the public sector and through direct negotiations and in the Psychology Workforce Taskforce we are pushing for a stronger psychology workforce.
More needs to be done to solve the psychologists’ workforce crisis and is continuing to advocate for workforce development through:
- Significant salary increases to recruit and retain psychologists in the public sector;
- Voluntary bonding schemes for psychologists to work in hard-to-staff areas;
- Guaranteed funding and better co-ordination of psychology internships;
- Recognising the specialist role of psychologists;
- Appointing a Chief Psychologist to provide appropriate clinical leadership;
- Ensuring the wellbeing of psychologists particularly in services under pressure.
CEPDL
As part of the last APEX and Te Whatu Ora Psychologists’ collective agreement, provisions for Contestable Extended Professional Development Leave (CEPDL) were agreed to for psychologists (sabbaticals).
Only a small number of psychologists applied to take CEPDL, however all who were approved to do one, have found it an extremely valuable experience. As only a small group applied, the ‘contestable’ part of the process was unnecessary, as there were always spaces available for applicants.
CEPDL allowed up to 10 weeks of time to be spent by the psychologist on duties extracurricular to normal practice.
All but one of those psychologists have now completed their professional development leave, and we can update you on the projects they completed.
A brief overview of the projects completed can be found below.
Psychology Productivity Report
During the claims survey we asked psychologists across the public sector at the end of 2024 to tell us how their employer can help improve their productivity.
Responses highlighted six keys to unlocking higher levels of productivity from the psychology workforce.
These include:
- Support flexible working arrangements
- Better clinical and office spaces
- Proper admin support
- Updating our technology
- Balance workloads & caseloads
- Reduce managerialism
We’ve put together a short paper which summarises and provides examples of productivity problems within these themes. Feel free to circulate this paper within your workplaces and teams.
Downloads and Resources
Template Applications
Psychologists Sabbaticals (Contestable Extended Professional Development Leave)
Psychologists Delegates
News & Media
Contact your Psychologist advocate
Use this form to send a message directly to your advocate, or contact them using the details below.