In a win for members employed in bush nursing centres, the ANMF has successfully negotiated a multi-employer enterprise agreement to cover 14 individual bush nursing centres across Victoria.
The Fair Work Commission approved the new agreement on Thursday 20 March 2025. The agreement came into operation on Friday 27 March.
Why is this big news?
Since enterprise bargaining legislation was introduced in the early 1990s, the ANMF has been required to negotiate a separate enterprise agreement for members at each employer, usually every three to four years. This is not only time- and- resource consuming, it can make it more difficult for workers at smaller employers to achieve the strength-in-numbers gains of those at larger employers.
In some instances, employers could be part of a multi-employer enterprise agreement – the public sector being a key example of this. However, only employers could choose this option, with the Act significantly curtailing the rights of union members to pursue such an agreement.
Under federal changes introduced by the Albanese Labor Government’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation in 2022, multi-employer enterprise bargaining was expanded – making it easier for unions and union members at ‘reasonably comparable’ employers to seek to bargain together, increasing their bargaining power through strength in numbers.
How does this apply at bush nursing centres?
Historically, successive new individual bush nursing centre agreements were built around maintaining wage parity with the public acute health sector. Funding these outcomes relied on state government funding and local communities backing up any shortfalls not provided by the government.
Achieving parity outcomes for bush nursing centres often proved to be extremely difficult – especially during periods when the Liberal government was in power – resulting in anomalies in wages and conditions appearing in the various bush nursing centre agreements.
ANMF’s successful public health sector EBA outcome in 2024 presented even greater challenges for ANMF to achieve wage parity for members across all bush nursing centres. However, by seeking a multi-employer ‘single interest’ agreement with 14 individual bush nursing centre employers we were able to increase members’ bargaining power and successfully achieve public sector wage parity along with a range of other improved working conditions for all bush nursing centre nurses and midwives up to November 2027.
A cornerstone feature to the success of our negotiations has been that all wages and conditions for the 14 individual bush nursing centres are now contained in one enterprise agreement, easing administrative burden, streamlining implementation, and resolving historical anomalies.
The ANMF acknowledges the significant contribution of work that ANMF members Anne Brewer (Buchan Bush Nursing Centre) and Ann Vaughan (Harrow Bush Nursing Centre) have done to coordinate discussions with bush nursing centre managers and boards of management to achieve these outcomes.
The ANMF congratulates all members on achieving their new agreement.
