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Bolton Clarke protected industrial ballot opens – vote yes

Bolton Clarke protected industrial ballot opens – vote yes

ANMF is urging Bolton Clarke members to vote YES in a protected industrial action ballot after being offered a zero per cent wage increase.

The online ballot closes 5pm, Monday 1 July.

Voting yes will:

  • give members the opportunity and legal right to take protected industrial action in the future if current negotiations don’t resolve the issues
  • strengthen your collective bargaining ability in your 2024 EBA negotiations for improved wages, allowances, entitlements and working conditions.

It is important all members vote in the ballot as the Fair Work Act requires us to meet two hurdles:

  1. at least 50% of ANMF members must vote in the ballot
  2. more than 50% of those members who vote in the ballot must VOTE YES.

The more members that vote yes will also send a strong message to Bolton Clarke executive who told ANMF at a meeting on Friday 7 June that the organisation is offering no wage increases over the life of any proposed agreement.

Worse still, they propose adopting the lowest current wage rate for nurses and allied health professionals from across the three expired enterprise agreements as the basis of each level in the proposed classification structure in the new agreement.

For non-nurses – including personal care workers and community care aides – they propose to adopt the bare minimum Award rates as the rates for the new Carer classification structure and all non-nurse areas like admin, services, kitchens and maintenance.

Wages would only increase if the Award rates overtake your current rate (through the annual wage review increases awarded by the Fair Work Commission or the Aged Care Work Value Stage 3 increases funded by the federal government) and then, under the Fair Work Act, Bolton Clarke would be legally obligated to pay you the Award rate as a minimum.

This offer would mean you would be paid the minimum that any nurse or carer can legally be paid in Australia. This means that as an RN or EN you will be over $100 a week below the better paid aged care providers like Calvary, Baptcare, and Blue Cross.

How do I vote?

  1. The ballot agent Vero has emailed and/or SMS’d eligible members with your voting link and voting information. Look for the Vero email or sms.
  2. Simply click on the link. It takes you directly to the voting page.
  3. Scroll to read the entire question (which will list all the potential forms of action), select the YES button  and then hit submit.

The results will be announced on 2 July.

We would expect members to be taking protected industrial action late in the following week after having given the required notice of intention (3 days or 5 working days depending on the type of action). We will keep you updated.

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