The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has issued a "provisional view" on the application by the nurses' union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF), to further increase aged care nurse wages, proposing to phase the increases in over a 20-month period.
The FWC's "provisional view" proposes the following changes:
- increases of between 11.8% and 17.6% for Enrolled Nurses (ENs), and
- increases of between 6.9% and 16.1% for Registered Nurses and Clinical Nurses (CNs, senior nurses).
The proposed increases are on top of the 15% interim increase paid to nurses last year. About 30,000 RNs work in residential aged care.
The FWC proposes that the increases be phased in over three tranches: on 1 January 2025, 1 October 2025, and 1 August 2026.
The ANMF's application was lodged in the wake of the aged care Work Value Case, which was lodged by the Health Services Union (HSU), and delivered aged care workers pay increases of up to 30% in total.
Both cases have successfully argued that aged care workers' and nurses' wages should be increased because they have historically been undervalued due to assumptions based on gender, and because the increased complexity of the roles has not been factored into wages over the last several decades.
The ANMF's application to vary nurse wages replaces the HSU's application to increase aged care wages to the extent that it covers nurses. Pay rises from Stage 3 of the Aged Care Work Value case are expected to flow to eligible staff from 1 January 2025. The ANMF has until 8 November to submit feedback.
