As you might know, the Melaleuca Nurses Agreement expired on 30 June 2019, and we’ve been trying to bargain for you with a few hiccups along the way.

Today, we held another meeting with Melaleuca and there was finally a ray of hope that things might get sorted in the next few weeks.

Firstly, Melaleuca committed to pass on the government funded wage increase for nursing staff that we won in our national Aged Care Work Value Case.

Simone let us know that Melaleuca will make sure both ENs and RNs get HACSU’s 15% increase from the award rate.

In other great news Melaleuca have told us you’ll also receive 5.75% for the first year of your agreement on top of our award rise. According to Simone this means the total wage increase combined for nursing staff at Melaleuca Home is sitting at around 17.4%-18.75% depending on your pay level.

Things are definitely looking a lot better than they did when we first started bargaining – now we’ve got them to commit to keeping paid meal breaks for ENs and a solid pay rise.

We’re still waiting on a final wages offer from Melaleuca for years two and three of the agreement, but we’re hopeful we’ll hear back soon. Once we have this and we’re satisfied it’s a fair offer you’ll be able to vote on a draft agreement.

We’ll be pushing to ensure that Melaleuca’s wage offers for years two and three do not fall below the wage increases made by the Fair Work Commission each year, and we hope to make sure there will be wording that says you are to receive their wage offer or the FWC increases – whatever is higher. It is critical any wages offer does not fall below the wage increases made by the Fair Work Commission each year.

Congratulations on this massive achievement and pay rise – we’re proud that we could help you get it.

We’ll keep you updated as we move towards the next steps of getting the agreement out to vote, but in the meantime please make sure you get in touch with us via HACSUassist if you have any further questions or need more information.