St Vincent’s Private EBA negotiations: the good, the bad and the next steps

30 August 2024

The St Vincent’s Private enterprise agreement expired on 1 August 2024 and ANMF (Vic Branch) has been negotiating with St Vincent’s for a replacement agreement on behalf of our nearly 1000 members across their campuses.

St Vincent’s Health Australia made an initial offer of a 2% wage increase in the first year of the new agreement (in addition to 1.5% in the expired EBA for July 2024), followed by 3% in each subsequent year of the proposed four-year agreement, plus a sign-on bonus of $1000.

They have rejected outright members’ claims for ratios to be introduced into the EBA.

Members have rejected the offer and directed ANMF to continue negotiating.

Current offer: the good

The public sector EBA outcome resulted in St Vincent’s reconsidering their position and making a new offer, this time proposing a two-year agreement containing wage increases of:

4.5% in January 2025
3% in July 2025
1.5% in January 2026
2.5% in July 2026.

The offer also proposes those in RN Grade 2 Years 1 to 4 to get another 5% on top of the 4.5% in January 2025.

The increases would also apply to allowances.

At an average of 5.75% per year, this is one of the biggest increases in private hospital wages in memory.

The proposed agreement would expire in September 2026. St Vincent’s have not tried to match the large Year 4 public sector increases (12.7% for most classifications) at this time. They have, however, acknowledged that they need to match the public sector in 2027 and beyond to be competitive.

Current offer: the bad

While the wages proposed for 2024–2026 will keep the St Vincent’s Private rates at or above the public sector, they have offered very little other than the wages. The only new entitlement offered is the introduction of a lead apron allowance.

Many of their other proposed changes simply bring existing conditions up to the National Employment Standards, meaning they are meeting the federal legal minimum. These include improved family and domestic violence leave, ceremonial leave, the right to disconnect and a new provision pertaining to union delegate rights in accordance with the Fair Work Act.

At a members’ meeting on 20 August, members endorsed a list of priority improvements from their log of claims that they are seeking to be included in any settlement of their EBA. Many of these items are matters that have been won in the public sector – or other private health services – over the last two EBAs. These include, among others:

Allowances to ensure parity with public sector, including shift, change of roster and on-call allowances, as well as a new redeployment allowance as per the public sector 2024 EBA.
Staffing ratios aligned with the Safe Patient Care (Nurse to Patient and Midwife to Patient Ratios) Act 2015.
ACORN standards and staffing skill mix to be no more than one third registered nurses with one to three years’ experience, and one third graduate registered nurses/enrolled nurses.
For ICU, ensure that ACCCN Guidelines are included in the Agreement and implemented. This includes that 50% of staff in ICU/CCU are crit-care qualified.
Increase compassionate leave to five days for international and interstate travel; three days for all other occasions, as per the public sector 2024 agreement.
Deleting the cap of 152 hours on annual leave loading and providing 17.5% annual leave loading, where applicable, to all periods of accrued annual leave, as per the public sector 2024 agreement.
Where an employee suffers from a chronic medical condition, provide for annual certification of the chronic condition that will satisfy evidence requirements for personal leave and not require staff to attend medical practitioner for a certificate on each occasion.
Increase the number of single day personal leave absences without a certificate [it was increased to five in the 2024 public sector EBA].
More flexible access to long service leave, including the ability to take leave in single days.
Include casuals in the long service leave clause to give them the same entitlement.
Superannuation paid on paid parental leave and six months of unpaid parental leave.
20 days of family and domestic violence leave, as per most agreements, instead of the minimum 10 days offered by St Vincent’s as required by the National Employment Standards.