Public sector members check the wages table at the Shepparton 26 June 2024 member meeting. Photo: Cam Matheson
Public sector members: your third wage increase of the 2024-2028 EBA is due in the first full pay period on or after 15 May.
All nurses and midwives in the Victorian public sector will receive a 28.4 per cent (compounded) wage increase by the end of the current four-year agreement. This is occurring via two pay rises per year, for all nurses and midwives – except RN/RM grade 2 year 1 (grad year). See below for an explanation of why graduate nurses and midwives only get one annual pay rise over the next three years.
The first two pay rises of the agreement were backpaid to June and July 2024. From this year, the pay rises are scheduled biannually, on varied dates in May and November.
In 2025, the total percentage wage rise will be between 3 per cent and 4.23 per cent (compounded), depending on the classification. The 2025 wage increase is made up of a 3 per cent increase in May and the second tranche of gender equity uplift in November (except for RN/RM grade 2 year 1 as per below, and, to note, with varying percentages for RN/RM grade 2 year 2 to grade 2 year 7).
To check your classification, refer to the wages table: anmfvic.asn.au/EBAwages
ANMF recommends that you carefully check your payslip in the first full pay period on or after 15 May to make sure your new rates have been applied correctly.
If you have questions regarding your pay, check the wages table and contact your payroll department in the first instance.
If you still have questions after, contact ANMF member assistance.
Graduate year
The full 28.4 per cent (compounded) wage increase effectively comprises two sources of uplift funding:
- Victorian public sector wage increase
- Gender equity wage uplift
The gender equity uplift is a result of ANMF’s successful work value case in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) to increase minimum Award rates of pay for aged care nurses and carers.
As ANMF (Vic Branch) Assistant Secretary Sam Casey told a crowd at Trades Hall last year, ‘it became apparent during negotiations for the EBA … that those [foreshadowed] federal award rates – which usually lagged behind our state public sector agreement rates – would actually overtake the entry level agreement rates for nurses.
‘And not just the entry level rate, but some way into the hard fought for and fiercely protected classification career structure in the public sector agreement. There would, therefore, be a huge impact on nurses’ and midwives’ career structure in Victoria if we didn’t lift the entire career structure to reflect the entry level wage uplifts mandated by the award.’
As the award rate is the federal legal minimum, this created a lever that ANMF and the state government relied on in negotiations for the new EBA to secure wage increases above the state government’s wages policy of 3 per cent.
For most classifications, the annual May wage increase represents the Victorian public sector government wages policy, while the annual November increases comprise a gender equity wage uplift.
For graduates, the gender equity uplift component of the overall Agreement wage rise was frontloaded in totality in 2024 as a 17.5 per cent increase to ensure this rate would not fall behind the new federal minimum award rate. For RN/RM grade 2 year 2 to year 7 nurses and midwives, this has had to be staggered in earlier than for other classifications, given the Award case outcome.
