WA’s nurses and midwives have concluded their long-running battle with the state government over pay and conditions, with union members voting to accept one of two offers put to them.
Key points:
- Nurses have voted to accept the state government’s latest pay offer
- The agreement will only be in place until October
- The parties will then return to the negotiating table
The Australian Nursing Federation has accepted a 3 per cent annual pay rise with a professional development allowance for all nurses and midwives between $700 and $1,400.
In an email to union members, state secretary Janet Reah said the deal “does not truly reflect what nurses and midwives are worth”.
“This option voted for by the members was the maximum we could achieve in these negotiations,” she wrote.
“I understand the frustration some of you are feeling and I feel it too.”
Public sector unions spent the latter half of 2022 at loggerheads with the government, drawing massive crowds to rallies and forcing the state to revise its pay rise offer three times.
The Australian Nursing Federation was the most aggressive and headstrong of the unions, even defying an order from the Industrial Relations Commission by organising a strike outside state parliament in November 2022 demanding a five per cent pay rise.
It later agreed to pay a $350,000 fine for the event, which resulted in hundreds of surgeries being cancelled.
A ballot which closed at midday today asked union members to choose between two offers, both of which included a $60 a week or three per cent a year pay rise, whichever is greater, and:
- a professional development allowance of $1,200 for certain levels of nurses; or
- a professional development allowance for all nurses between $700 and $1,400 depending on their level
There was no option for members to reject both offers and resume negotiations.
The survey had the union’s highest ever turnout for an enterprise bargaining agreement ballot, with 2,066 members voting.
The next highest turnout was 1,072 voters in 2018.
A majority of voters of 65 per cent agreed to option B, which offers allowance payments for all levels.
It brings overall pay closer to, but still below, the headline figure the union had been hoping for.
The new agreement will also include nurse-to-patient ratios, which the ANF had been seeking for years, across all hospitals.
Currently, ratios are only in place in Perth Children’s Hospital’s emergency department.
Nurses have been receiving the base pay increase since early last year after the government decided to start paying it despite negotiations continuing.
The agreement is expected to be registered in coming weeks but will only last until October because of the fixed two-year cycles for public sector pay deals, leaving only a few months before both sides will be back at the negotiating table.
Their experience is likely to be different this time around though with Premier Roger Cook last month scrapping the McGowan-era blanket public sector wages policy.
Instead, each union will be able to negotiate every aspect of their deal across both pay and conditions.
The ANF is yet to decide what figure it will chase, but other public sector unions have indicated they will push for a 12 per cent pay rise over two years.
In her email to union members, Ms Reah said preparations would now begin for the next industrial campaign.
“That kicks off in April with the drafting of our log of claims in preparation for the 2024 EBA negotiations that begin in July and which also lead up to the next state election,” she said.
The government has allocated an extra $2.8 billion, on top of its existing budget, for additional pay rises – but hasn’t said what kind of percentage increase that could deliver.
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