Aged care providers need at least four months to implement any increase to nurses’ wages from the final determination, the provider peak body has told the Fair Work Commission.
In a provisional statement handed down on 23 October, the FWC proposed higher wages for enrolled and registered nurses working in aged care and phasing in those increases in three tranches from 1 January 2025, 1 October 2025 and 1 August 2026.
The proposal includes increasing enrolled nurse wages to a flat rise to $1422 for all ENs supervising personal care workers, and a range for registered nurses starting at $1449 a week for first year nurses to $2,500 a week for level 5 nurses.
In a submission published on 8 November 2024, the Aged & Community Care Providers Association said it fully supported the proposed wage increase but could no longer support a start date of 1 January 2025.
Due to the complexity of the changes, ACCPA is calling for a minimum of four months from the publication of a final determination.
“As set out in submissions filed 26 August 2024, aged care providers operating in residential aged care and home care require time to ensure all essential preparatory steps and necessary communications are made and received prior to the operative date of any variations to the Nurses Award.
A period of less than two months in entirely inadequate; it would present an onerous and insurmountable deadline that aged care providers will not be able to meet,” ACCPA said.
Govt still wants longer phase-in period
Meanwhile in the latest submission from the Commonwealth, also published on 8 November, the government is sticking to its previous timeline of increases phased in from July 2025 to October 2027. Specifically, the government called for:
- for any wage increases up to 3 per cent to be introduced on 1 July 2025
- for any increases up to 6 per cent to be introduced on 1 October 2025
- for any wage increases up to 13 per cent to be introduced on 1 October 2026
- for any wage increases up to 20 per cent to be introduced on 1 October 2027.
Like ACCPA, the government also highlighted the lack of time. Given the date of these submissions, implementing more changes to wage rates may cause confusion with the sector, employers, workers and care recipients, the submission said.
As the government’s proposed timeline matches its funding commitment the increased costs “associated with funding the wage increases” would be borne by aged care providers and the Commonwealth is not “in the position” to quantify the impact this would have on businesses, such as employment costs.
Nurses want changes to increases and timing
The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation however continued to raise issues over the new rates and call for a speedier rollout of increases – in two tranches from 01 January 2025 and 01 October 2025.
The concerns raised in ANMF’s submission include:
- pay points for ENs should not be eliminated
- the reduction in pay points and grades for RNs is “too drastic”
- NPs should receive a pay increase.
“A reduction in pay increments from 25 to eight, that is by more than two-thirds, is unsupported by evidence, and is not necessary to achieve the modern awards objective,” the submission said.
In its proposal the Fair Work Commisison suggested no further increase was warranted for Nurse Practitioners.
However, in doing so the ANMF said the FWC has drawn an unfair comparison noting that NPs must have completed a Masters’ Degree.
In its submission ACCPA also questioned whether the lack of increase to NPs was an oversight. It also observed the ANMF’s unanswered questions and the potential impact on rolling out the new wage increases.
“The unresolved questions of the unions to the Expert Panel regarding the award wage rates published on 11 September 2024 are also providing hurdles to a smooth implementation process,” ACCPA’s submission said.
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