Merit Progression Criteria. 9.3.1 Employees in the merit step ranges of the scale may apply for progression to a higher salary step at any time, but not more frequently than once a year unless otherwise agreed by both parties.
9.3.2 The process with regard to merit step progression in this clause 9.3 shall be the only process that is to apply to APEX psychologists. No other Merit Progression criteria will be accepted or used as an alternative to determine whether an APEX Psychologist has achieved merit step progression.
9.3.3 The employer will consider the application in good faith and will process the application, where practicable within 6 weeks, using a merit progression process typically involving the employee, an appropriate representative of the employer (e.g. the employee’s line manager), and the Professional Leader - Psychology or (if not available) other appropriate senior psychological colleague.
9.3.4 Successful applications will be backdated to the date the application is received.
9.3.5 Where an application is unsuccessful the employee will be advised promptly of the reasons in writing and have an opportunity to have the decision reviewed, should they request in writing, by someone senior to the decision maker.
9.3.6 The request for review and the review must be conducted in a timely manner. If after the review process has been completed and the application is successful, the application must be backdated to the date the original application was received. The implementation of a salary increase as a result of a successful merit step application should not be unnecessarily delayed and where practicable implementation should occur within 6 weeks.
9.3.7 Progression to a higher merit step requires agreement by the employer that the employee has met the following criteria: As a minimum, the employee must be fulfilling the Core Tasks and must meet at least 3 of the Optional Tasks. However, this minimum of 3 can be reduced to 2 by agreement, following a 3 way meeting of the Psychologist, Professional Leader and Service Manager, or their delegate.
a. The employee is undertaking clinical work at the level expected of a senior practitioner, as evidenced by satisfactory annual performance reviews1 and demonstration of overall competency at the Consultant level using the New Zealand DHB Psychology Leadership Council’s Core Competency for Psychologists document2 as a guide (unless the employee is not working in a clinical role).
b. Clinical Supervision of Psychologists, trainee psych...
