The Allan Labor Government will deliver a massive pay increase for our hardworking nurses and midwives.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation members today voted in favour of the heads-of-agreement. The four-year deal will see nurses and midwives delivered a wage increase of 28.4 per cent – helping to retain and recruit more nurses so more Victorians can get the best care.

The agreement also improves gender wage equity in Victoria. The nursing and midwifery workforce is overwhelmingly female, and the Fair Work Commission (FWC) found that their profession has been historically undervalued based on unfair assumptions about gender.

The significant new deal provides certainty about wages affected by the Fair Work Commission’s decision in the Aged Care Work Value Case.

In addition to the wage increase, the agreement backs our existing workforce and encourages a new generation of nurses and midwives by delivering:

• Preserved longstanding career structures and opportunities for progression

• Incentivised permanent work through a new change of ward allowance which will compensate nurses and midwives when they are moved from their base ward – so employers stop using redeployment and casual workers as a business-as-usual rostering practice

• Improved night shift penalties for permanent nurses and midwives

• A right-to-disconnect clause

• Improved access to flexible working arrangements, recognising that nurses are available 24/7

• Reducing the qualifying period for parental leave from six months to zero, and

• Recognition of service for interstate public sector nurses and midwives who have relocated to Victoria

The deal builds on previous enterprise agreements to provide more certainty for Victoria’s nurses and midwives.