October 2005

‘Better bargaining’ another attack on nurses

The Howard Government has announced it intends to introduce legislation to amend the Workplace Relations Act so that unions are unable to negotiate common wages and industrial conditions across the workforce.

Known as the Better Bargaining Bill, the legislation reflects the government’s view that campaigns by trade unions and employees which attempt to achieve standard outcomes across more than one workplace are inconsistent with enterprise bargaining and should be made illegal.

The Australian Nursing Federation has always maintained that a nurse’s remuneration and industrial conditions should reflect their educational qualifications, levels of responsibility and experience, rather than be based on the particular sector in which they are employed.

It was this principle that led to the establishment (during the 1980’s) of standard nursing wages and employment conditions across federal awards, and a series of decisions by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission known as ‘professional’ or ‘national rates decisions’.

Since enterprise bargaining came into effect in the early 1990’s, the ANF has used it as the principle method of determining wages and industrial conditions for nurses.

However, in order to ensure a nurse’s remuneration and industrial conditions reflect their educational qualifications, levels of responsibility and experience, regardless of the sector in which they work, the ANF has used enterprise bargaining to continue to seek nationally consistent wages and conditions across the nursing workforce.

Likewise, the majority of nurse employers have also pursued standard wages and employment conditions in agreements.

This is because pattern bargaining suits the nursing industry, benefiting nurses, employers, and the community alike. Pattern bargaining allows nurses to move freely between employment sectors and contributes to a consistent level of care being available to the Australian community whether the services are provided in metropolitan or rural areas.

In nursing, nationally consistent industrial standards in both wages and conditions of employment have delivered significant cost savings, promoted industrial harmony, and protected nurses from the vagaries of the labour market and the impact they may have on wages.

In the Australian nursing labour market, which is characterised by long-term and entrenched labour shortages and a highly mobile workforce, many thousands of employers compete for nursing labour.

The Howard Government’s intention to legislate to further restrict the rights of the negotiating parties to agree on industry wide outcomes will do nothing to alleviate these problems. It has nothing to do with sound industrial arrangements, and is simply based on an ideological point of view.


Nick Blake
ANF Federal Industrial Officer