St John of God members overwhelmingly vote to accept EBA offer

28 July 2025

Almost 91 cent of nurses and midwives at St John of God have voted to accept their employer’s Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) offer.

The results – a 90.57 per cent yes from 71.3 per cent of eligible employees who participated in the ballot – are a resounding endorsement of the ANMF (Vic Branch) negotiated offer to replace the previous agreement, which nominally expired in June.

While ANMF welcomed the significant improvements to wages and conditions in the proposed agreement, the Branch did not recommend a vote one way or the other to members, instead encouraging members to assess the proposed agreement and vote accordingly.

The agreement is now with the Fair Work Commission and will become enforceable seven days following its approval.

Key points of the offer

The agreement was reached after three months of negotiations, in which ANMF Job Reps were heavily involved and the Branch is indebted to and congratulates them for their hard work and continued advocacy on behalf of themselves and their colleagues.

Job Reps will continue to meet regularly to ensure the Agreement is implemented and adhered to appropriately.

The proposed new EBA includes the following key improvements:

Wages

5% backdated to FFPPOA 1 July 2025 (with additional uplifts for RN Grade 2, years 1 to 5)
A further increase to align with public sector nursing rates from FFPPOA 1 October 2025.
4.25% from FFPPOA 1 July 2026
4.25% from FFPPOA 1 July 2027

Allowances

Lead apron allowance of $9 for each shift where an employee is required to wear a lead apron
Introduction of an endorsed midwife allowance of four per cent of the base rate for all midwives who meet the definition of an endorsed midwife.
Introduction of a training and assessment allowance of 3.5 per cent of base rate where an employee is required to hold a current Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. The allowance will not apply to an employee who is entitled to a higher / more generous qualification allowance.
Vehicle allowance, qualifications allowance and on-call allowances all to be increased:
- 5% from FFPPOA 1 July 2025
- 4.25% from FFPPOA 1 July 2026
- 4.25% from FFPPOA 1 July 2027
Night shift allowance to increase:
- $112.08 FFPPOA 1 July 2025
- $117.41 FFPPOA 1 July 2026
- $120.93 FFPPOA 1 July 2027
Domiciliary allowance to increase:
- $3.77 per hour from FFPPOA 1 July 2025
- $3.93 per hour from FFPPOA 1 July 2026
- $4.09 per hour from FFPPOA 1 July 2027

Leave

Primary paid parental leave to increase to:
- 12 weeks from 1 July 2025
- 13 weeks from 1 July 2026
- 14 weeks from 1 July 2027
Annual leave: from 1 July 2027, eligible part-time nurses and midwives will accrue six weeks of annual leave per year
Personal leave:
- Increase in the number of days an employee can take off due to sickness without needing to provide evidence, from three to five days per year
- Reasonable evidence can now include a certificate from either from an in-person or telehealth consultation (not limited to face-to-face consultations)
Compassionate leave increased from two to three days per occasion
Long service leave:
- To be paid based on normal weekly hours at the time the employee takes long service leave (averaging provision removed)
- use of single day long service leave
- new transition to retirement clause, meaning an employee can reduce their hours of work but preserve their long service leave accrual at the higher rate.
Domestic and family violence leave: increase from 10 days paid leave per year to 20 days paid leave per year, as well as an additional five days of unpaid leave that can be accessed where needed as part of responding to a domestic / family violence situation
Examination leave to increase to:
- three days on commencement
- four days from 1 January 2026
- five days from 1 January 2027.
Extension of the study leave entitlement to enrolled nurses undertaking a Bachelor of Nursing/Midwifery. The entitlement is to four hours of paid study leave per week (pro-rated for part-time employees) for up to 13 weeks per calendar year.
ANMF Job Reps can now access five days paid training leave in year 1, and two days of paid training leave in subsequent years.
Jury service leave now applies to all employees, including casuals.

Rostering and staffing

The offer includes nurse/midwife staffing, workload and escalation:

Workload management to be achieved and promoted by being discussed at bed meetings, ward meetings, ward / unit huddles and other daily meetings
The staffing levels will be determined within each unit based on a list of factors, which includes, but is not limited to: a clinical assessment of patient acuity and care needs, the skill mix (RN/EN) and nursing/midwifery professional standards.
New escalation protocol that states that if there is an issue of safe staffing on a shift, it is resolved during that shift.
12-hour shifts: additional paid rest breaks on a 12-hour shift: 2 x 10-minute paid rest breaks will apply, in addition to the current paid 20-minute break and unpaid 30-minute meal break.
Banking of hours: new provision that makes it clear that this is by employee choice only and a banking-of-hours form must be completed. This will not be used by the employer as a substitute for overtime payments (unless the employee elects for this to occur).
NUMs:
- A minimum of 16 hours per calendar month for dedicated office time to attend the non-clinical aspects of the role, with the NUM able to backfill their position when performing administrative duties.
- Will not be rostered an allocated patient load unless there are exceptional / emergency circumstances.
ANUMs: other than in exceptional / emergency circumstances, the Nurse in Charge of Unit on PM shifts on weekdays, and AM and PM shifts on the weekends or public holidays, will not be rostered to take an allocated patient load in Medical / Surgical Units.

Other matters

St John of God agreed to the inclusion of the word ‘midwives’ in the title of the Agreement and throughout the Agreement, as well as inclusion of a clause specifying that a midwife who is not a registered nurse, but later becomes one, has their experience as a midwife count as experience towards registered nurse increments.

Other agreed claims include:

Health Care at Home Nurses to be classified and paid at a grade 3A
Where an employee is underpaid in any manner, St John of God will rectify the error as soon as practicable and within two days from the error being established.
Minimum engagement:
- Hospital employees will increase from two hours to four hours
- Ambulatory and Home Care Service will increase from one to three hours
Casuals:
- Increase to the minimum daily engagement for casual employees from two to three hours
- The minimum engagement period will be paid to casual employees where their shift is cancelled with less than two hours’ notice.
Hours of work:
- Employees will be free from duty for no less than two days off in each week or an average of two days off per week for the roster cycle. A day off is a continuous period of 24 hours off duty
- Ambulatory and home care employees: removal of broken shifts provision
- The time required for employees who are required to change into/out of their uniform/scrub suit at work will be recognised as ordinary rostered hours (paid time).
Meal breaks: where an employee is directed to work through a meal break, the time will be paid as overtime rates or taken as time off in lieu (the time in lieu shall be equivalent to the period of meal break worked plus a period equivalent to the overtime penalty incurred).
Mandatory training: in relation to mandatory training (including e-learning) a new clause has been included that makes it clear that this is paid time and where it is required to be attended to outside of ordinary hours it will trigger overtime.