Australia, July 9 -- New South Wales Land and Environment Court issued text of the following judgement on June 10:
1. This is an application for the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales (Commission) to make the Crown Employees (NSW Police Force (Nurses')) Award 2024 (2024 Award).
2. Pursuant to s 10 of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (IR Act), the Commission may make awards setting fair and reasonable conditions of employment for employees.
3. There are a small number of conditions which have been changed from the existing Crown Employees (NSW Police Force (Nurses)) Award 2022 (2022 Award); they are set out in Mr Moore's affidavit, in particular in cl 6 and 7:
"6. The Award gives effect to:
a. an increase to salaries of 1.6 % from 1 July 2024 to bring these salaries in the Award in line with the Public Health System Nurses' and Midwives' (State) Award (the Public Health Nurses Award); and
b. automatic increases in salaries in accordance with any increases in salaries in the Public Health Nurses Award, until expiry of the Award on 30 June 2027.
7. The Award also provides the following outcomes:
a. following the alignment of salaries in the Award with the Public Health Nurses Award, the attraction and retention allowance will cease;
b. an initial 1.6% increase to the Team Leader Allowance and On Call allowance;
c. the Team Leader Allowance and On call Allowance will increase in accordance with the equivalent percentage increase to salaries for the 1st Year Registered Nurse classification in the Public Health Nurses Award, until expiry of the award on 30 June 2027;
d. an increase to the Clothing Allowance in accordance with the 8-point Sydney March Quarter CPI, and ongoing indexation of the allowance on that basis, until expiry of the award on 30 June 2027; and
e. a no-extra claims clause."
4. In short, though, those changes effectively bring the wages of the nurses employed by the Commissioner of Police (the Commissioner) in line with the wages set by a more general award, being the Public Health System Nurses' and Midwives' (State) Award 2023.
5. That award can be presumed to set fair and reasonable conditions of employment for employees and, whilst the parties have different reasons for agreeing to those wages rates being the same. Being that the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives' Association (Association) says that there is no reason for the work to be regarded as any different and the Commissioner says that industrially the amount of public money that would be expended in having the dispute is disproportionate to the amount of money effectively - those are my words, not exactly the Commissioner's words - but industrially in practical terms. Both of those are appealing reasons.
*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/1975c9572cd68138b6bf0f81)
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
