Madeleine Harradence, Assistant Secretary of ANMF (Vic Branch)
With the 2024-2028 public sector EBA at the Fair Work Commission for approval, it’s time to prepare for implementation. To ensure that your new entitlements, allowances and other benefits are correctly and swiftly applied and can start benefitting you shortly after approval is granted, every employer must have a Workplace Implementation Committee (WIC) – this is a required process of the new Agreement.
ANMF strongly encourages Job Reps to participate in their local WIC process with your Organiser, as the process can only be effective if Job Reps are aware of the changes and what it means for your workplace. Your Organiser may have already reached out around participation in your WIC. If not, they will be shortly. You want to ensure that that there is adequate representation from across your health service.
What is a Workplace Implementation Committee?
A Workplace Implementation Committee, or WIC, is a consultative group made up of representatives of an employer and the union(s) covered by the Agreement. ANMF Industrial Organisers and ANMF Job Reps typically represent the union on WICs.
WICs have been a feature of public health sector agreements for generations of bargaining; they are also a feature of some, but not all, private and not-for-profit sector enterprise agreements.
WICs can be seen as a best practice approach to compliance, and therefore pre-empting unnecessary disputation during the life of an Agreement.
WICs are to have a whole-of-employer scope but require information about all campuses.
What is the purpose of a Workplace Implementation Committee?
The primary work of a WIC is to methodically work through each clause of the Agreement to ensure the parties are compliant and correctly implementing it.
Specifically, the Agreement provides that the purpose of the WIC is: Agreement implementation; ongoing monitoring and assessment of the implementation of the Agreement; and dealing with any local disputes that may arise (without limiting the Dispute Resolution Procedure in the Agreement).
There are also a range of other purposes to the WIC that are not expressly set out in the Agreement but which also contribute to its value. These include:
- Building ANMF knowledge of the employer (workplace, people, systems etc), which helps us to help you down the track
- Building relationships – between ANMF and an employer, between Job Reps and Organisers and between Job Reps.
The Central Implementation Committee (see below) can be used to deal with issues that are not resolved at the local level.
Who is involved in a Workplace Implementation Committee?
The Agreement sets out that the WIC will:
- where practicable, comprise equal numbers of representatives of the employer and the unions.
- representatives of the ANMF may include nominees of the ANMF employed by the employer (aka Job Reps), in which case the employer will provide paid time for those nominees to participate.
Job Reps are in the perfect position to verify whether the employer has implemented or is implementing the EBA correctly.
Participation in the WIC process is an extremely effective way for Job Reps to gain a sound understanding of the EBA, which then enables them to inform and educate members in their workplace to ensure that the employer remains compliant with their obligations.
WIC participation also helps build on and enhance existing industrial knowledge more generally, and to build your confidence in dealing directly with your employer about matters of concern.
Employer representatives may include HR, finance/payroll people, EDONs, NUMs etc.
The composition of the WIC may change depending on the subject matter of particular meetings.
When does a Workplace Implementation Committee do its work?
ANMF expects that WICs should have commenced meeting around mid-October.
The Agreement specifies that:
- the WIC will meet as required to satisfy the purpose described and, in the event it ceases meeting, will be reconvened at the request of the employer or union covered by the Agreement
- ongoing monitoring and assessment of the implementation of the Agreement is a stated purpose of the WIC, which means the WIC can be reconvened if helpful in dealing with a workplace matter.
How is the Workplace Implementation Committee governed?
Clause 80.10 of the Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 governs WICs.
Clause 80.11 provides for a Central Implementation Committee – the CIC – for the first time.
What is the Central Implementation Committee?
The Central Implementation Committee (CIC) is an escalation point for implementation and other Agreement matters that cannot be resolved at the workplace level.
The CIC will have representatives of ANMF, the Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association (VHIA) and the Department of Health participating.
The following matters will also form part of the work of the CIC during the life of the Agreement:
- implementation of a best practice guide to address emerging equity issues arising from flexible working arrangements, sexual harassment and discrimination
- any legislative requirement to undertake gender equity activities
- consolidation of major agreement provisions to reduce complexity and inefficiencies within the public health system
- aged care staffing arrangements
- remote location incentivisation schemes
- review of template change impact statements; and
- development and implementation of the Registered Enrolled Nursing Students (RENS) employment model.
