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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3867 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Abandoning the fringe benefits taxation legislation trigger: existing agreements provide some guarantee that, if the Commonwealth fringe benefits tax legislation changes result in a significant diminution of the benefit derived from salary packaging, wage arrangements will be reviewed. The type of Commonwealth legislative change which might reopen this issue could include future changes to the hospital's PBI status, or any tightening of the limits on how much salary sacrificing is free of fringe benefits tax.

By this variation, the parties would agree to remove the existing trigger. Since the trigger was included in recognition that the original wage rises were quite modest, we feel that the dramatic wage rise announced in this initiative justified the trigger being abandoned. So they are the general reforms.

Then we have agency - specific reforms. The Canberra Hospital will require the following additional reforms: the adoption of a composite role for level 3 nurses, to clarify leadership roles and ensure a single point of accountability and ward management; the adoption of a more comprehensive and consistent set of guidelines on the provision of home - garaged vehicles, in order to reduce the FBT costs and to ensure vehicles are allocated to meet operational requirements; noting that TCH is planning the introduction of a corporate uniform in 2001, agreement to sensible flexibility to the uniform entitlement during the transition period and to discontinue the current laundry allowance; and dropping current arrangements for potential gain - sharing any benefits from decreased unexplained absences from duty, on the ground that wage rises in this package more than make up for any potential bonus payments under this agreement.

ACT Community Care will negotiate these reforms: establishing a workload - monitoring procedure to ensure that the clinical workload required of ACT Community Care nursing staff is equitably allocated and measured against national benchmarking standards, and to take account of the requirement for training and development; ending the requirement for specified ratios of level 1 to level 2 nurses, so that nursing positions can be classified according to the duties required by each health service; abandoning the budget achievement bonuses currently on offer, on the ground that the wage rises in this package complicate the assessment of this bonus, but also more than make up for abandoning it; adopting a more comprehensive and consistent set of guidelines in the provision of home - garaged vehicles, in order to reduce FBT costs and to ensure vehicles are allocated to meet operational requirements; and adopting a standard set of discipline and grievance rules to bring ACT Community Care into line with the rules in force in the two hospitals.

Finally, the additional reforms at Calvary Public Hospital will be running a wide - ranging review of the nurses' career structure and introducing an element of performance - based wage assessment into the yearly advancement of staff to the next wage level.

Extension of the industrial agreements: we propose that the wages offer will not be backdated, but that the date of effect will be the date the offer is accepted. The government wants the workforce to get the benefits of the earliest possible commencement of this package, and the "no backdating" position is intended as an incentive to avoid any unnecessary delay in delivering this package.

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