Aged-care nurses facing pay cuts

Many workers will have to relocate as they struggle to keep up with living costs.

NURSING homes in NSW and Queensland face an exodus of aged-care nurses after the industrial relations umpire refused an application to delay by two years a revamp of the nation's award system that will result in significant wage cuts.

The Australian Nursing Federation says thousands of aged-care nurses in the two states will lose up to $300 a week under the award modernisation program and will be left with no choice but to leave the industry as they struggle to pay mortgages and keep up with the increased cost of living.

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission decision is a slap in the face for Workplace Relations Minister Julia Gillard, whose department backed the union's legal action to have the new pay rates for 15,000 award-covered nurses in the two states delayed until 2012.

The union has called on the federal government to provide increased funding for the wages of aged-care nurses in this year's budget, especially given the industry is facing a severe shortage as the population ages.

It says that over the five-year, phase-in period of the national award, first-year nurses in NSW would have their pay cut by $88 a week from $738 to $650 while registered NSW nurses in their eighth year would suffer a $294- a-week pay cut. In Queensland, level-three registered nurses would have their pay cut from $1118 a week to $994.

ANF acting federal secretary Lee Thomas said the decision would have a devastating impact on an already strained sector.

"The biggest losers here will be the residents, 70 per cent of whom have complex medical needs that require nurse expertise," she said.

Ms Thomas said the timing was out of step with demographic trends. "Considering that Australia is facing a 56 per cent rise by 2020 in the number of nursing home residents, this is not the time to be risking further staff shortages in the sector," she said. "The ANF is very disappointed and will do everything in its power to make sure this doesn't happen."

Opposition employment spokesman Mathias Cormann said the wage cuts had penalised aged-care nurses in Queensland and NSW.

"We cannot afford to have any aged-care nurse decide to leave the profession," he said.

Ms Gillard said the commission had "worked through those issues in a satisfactory way". She said she did not accept figures that aged-care nurses could lose up to $300 a week under the award modernisation.

Wollongong Nursing Home nurse Lyn Robinson said she was set to lose about $290 a week under the award modernisation.

"I'm very upset about this situation," she said. "It's a lot of money to lose and I'm worried about my future. I cannot afford to lose that much."