After 49 days of protected industrial action, on Monday 2 September members at Bolton Clarke began voting no to their employer’s unfair enterprise agreement, which went to ballot without support from ANMF.
As of publication, the ballot is still open and the Branch encourages any member who has not yet voted to do so, and to VOTE NO. We also recommend talking to your colleagues – especially those who are not members (including kitchen and laundry staff, for example) – and sharing with them why you are voting no and why they should also vote no.
Beginning on Monday 15 July, thousands of ANMF Bolton Clarke members have been engaged in protected industrial action that has included everything from wearing campaign t-shirts, admin bans and writing messages on work cars right up to rolling daily two-hour stoppages and weekly community rallies outside Bolton Clarke’s various facilities.
Throughout, Bolton Clarke’s tactics have become increasingly desperate.
They initially made a zero per cent wage offer, though members’ action over the past six weeks has seen that increase to 3 per cent upon approval of their proposed agreement in 2024 followed by 2.5 per cent on the first anniversary of the approval in 2025 and 2026 – but only for some employees, and with caveats. The ANMF wants certain dates like 1 July in each year.
This offer is on rates that are already in the bottom 10 per cent of aged care employers in Victoria, and the worst for shift and on-call allowances. So 2.5 per cent a year in 2025 and 2026 is unacceptable.
On top of that, some members would have some entitlements like personal leave decreased.
The offer would keep Bolton Clarke nurses, midwives and carers thousands of dollars per year worse off than their colleagues at comparable workplaces. And it comes after Bolton Clarke chose to not pass on a 1% pay rise that their Allity staff were due to receive in October last year, instead pocketing it themselves and absorbing it against the Stage 2 aged care work value increases paid in July.
Rubbing salt into this wound, the offer came after Bolton Clarke posted a 45% increase in operational earnings for the 2023 financial year, and after executives were rewarded with a reported 22% pay rise last year – from $5.6million in 2022 to $6.8 million (source: Bolton Clarke Chairman and Group CEO Reports for the year ended 30 June 2023)!
Despite not reaching agreement with ANMF on their proposed EBA, Bolton Clarke then decided to put the proposed Agreement to a vote of all employees – and their efforts to convince employees to vote yes to their sub-standard offer have been substantial.
‘The Albanese Government has provided Bolton Clarke with millions of dollars for increased wages and to pay for enough staff to implement the daily mandated 200 care minutes for each resident, ANMF Branch Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick told members at the community rally outside Bolton Clarke Glendale in Werribee in early August.
‘Meanwhile Bolton Clarke is working to suppress wage increases for current staff and cutting wages for new staff so nurses and carers will be earning different pay for the same work.’
ANMF is recommending a NO vote to send a strong signal to Bolton Clarke that this is an unacceptable offer and to get them back to the table to negotiate improved conditions and a minimum four per cent annual pay increase to match the wages of more competitive providers.
Who is Bolton Clarke?
Bolton Clarke is a Queensland-based company that over recent years has bought out existing services including the Royal District Nursing Service (RDNS), RSL Care, and 22 former Allity and McKenzie residential aged care facilities. Their services also include an at-home nursing program, the Homeless Persons Nursing Program and a maternal and child health line. In Victoria they employ around 4800 staff.
For six months prior to members beginning protected industrial action, ANMF had been bargaining with Bolton Clarke for a new enterprise agreement in Victoria to replace three expired enterprise agreements: for RDNS, RSL and Allity/McKenzie employees.
Frustrated and angry that Bolton Clarke had spent so long either stalling or dragging their feet during negotiations, members voted quickly and overwhelmingly in favour of taking protected industrial action to progress their claims.
ANMF is hopeful of an equally overwhelming No vote on Friday to this unacceptable offer. We will then get Bolton Clarke back to the table, including with the assistance of the Fair Work Commission on 16 September.
