Optometrists at some of Australia’s largest eye care chains are being threatened with formal warnings for missing sales targets and required to seek permission before using the bathroom, a new Health Services Union report reveals.
The report documents a broader pattern: registered health professionals are being managed like retail staff, pushed to meet sales KPIs, cut consultation times, and prioritise revenue over patient care.
The findings, published today in an HSU discussion paper, draw on the most comprehensive workforce survey of employed optometrists in Australia to date.
The paper also draws on direct accounts from optometrists working inside Specsavers, OPSM, Bupa Optical, and other major chains, which together employ up to three-quarters of Australia’s practising optometrists.
Median initial consultation times have fallen to 30 minutes, down from 45 minutes recorded in comparable national data from 2006.
Three-quarters of optometrists are dissatisfied with their income, and fewer than one in four feel they have adequate career options or professional growth.
Health Services Union National Senior Assistant Secretary Kate Marshall said the findings reflected a profession fundamentally reshaped by corporate ownership.
“Optometrists have always been health professionals,” she said.
“What’s changed is that corporate employers are running their businesses as though they are not.
“The pressure to meet sales targets, cut consult times, and subordinate clinical judgment to commercial metrics is widespread and getting worse.”
The paper details specific conduct across the major chains.
“At Specsavers, our members have been threatened with written warnings for missing KPI targets. One member was told she needed to notify management before using the bathroom,” Ms Marshall said.
“At OPSM, store managers have been booking follow-up appointments without patient consent just to fill the diary. And at Bupa Optical, optometrists were issued a blanket directive last year to move all patients to 12-month recall intervals, regardless of clinical need.
“These are health professionals detecting glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration – sometimes the first to catch a tumour or an impending stroke.
“When you compress their time and penalise them for ordering extra tests, patients could be at risk.”
Through the Fair Work Commission the HSU will seek to clarify that optometrists are covered as health professionals under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award.
Employers like Specsavers wrongly advise optometrists that they fall under the Retail Award. Optometrists are health professionals providing a critical health service to our communities – not simply selling glasses.
Contact: Matt Coughlan 0400 561 480 / matt@hortonadvisory.com.au
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