Nurses seize on new IR laws in pay push

New gender equity and job security provisions will be cited in pay push.

The nurses union will cite gender equity and job security provisions in Labor’s recently passed industrial relations laws to boost the case for pay rises for aged-care workers.

The commission ruled in November that more than 300,000 aged-care workers would get a pay rise of at least 15 per cent. But the timing is to be determined.

It has not ruled out a further rise for direct care staff and is yet to rule on a union claim for a 25 per cent wage increase for administrative and support aged-care employees, such as cleaning staff.

In a recent statement, a commission full bench invited parties to make submissions if Labor’s Secure Jobs Better Pay Bill was passed by federal parliament. In a letter for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation on Monday, lawyers said the Fair Work Act had been amended to ensure job security and gender equity were objects of the Act.

The Fair Work Act had also been changed to clarify that the commission’s consideration of work value reasons must be free of assumptions based on gender and must include consideration of whether historically the work being assessed has been undervalued because of such assumptions. The government said its commitment to fund the pay rise after the commission found an interim 15 per cent pay rise for aged-care nurses and workers in direct care roles was “‘plainly justified”.

EWIN HANNAN