The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has told a federal inquiry examining whether the National Employment Standards (NES) are fit for purpose that the current criteria employees must meet to be considered a shift worker is too narrow, meaning many nurses working irregular hours, such as night shifts, are missing out on an extra week of paid annual leave.

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Appearing at a public hearing in Melbourne on Friday, Australian Unions gave evidence in their push for major reforms to the 12 minimum employment entitlements under the NES, which have remained largely unchanged since their introduction in 2010. Key proposals include an extra week of annual leave – up from four to five weeks per year – and from five to six weeks for regular shift workers. Unions are also calling for reduced working hours, including a four-day week where feasible and sector alternatives where it’s not, with weekly hours to be initially reduced from 38 to 35.

Section 87 of the Fair Work Act 2009 defines who qualifies as a shift worker for the purpose of accessing an additional week of paid annual leave. Nurses and midwives covered by the Nurses Award 2020 are entitled to five weeks of annual leave, with shift workers able to access a sixth week. To be classified as a shift worker, nurses and midwives must be regularly rostered across a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week service and routinely required to work weekends.

ANMF Senior Federal Industrial Officer Kristen Wischer told the inquiry the current criteria are too complex, leading to confusion, workplace disputes, and unequal access to entitlements. For example, even though many nurses regularly work night shifts and weekends, they can be excluded from securing the additional week’s annual leave.

The ANMF’s proposal to expand the shift worker definition would see any employee whose ordinary hours of work extend beyond 6am-6pm Mon-Fri automatically be considered a shift worker.

“We believe that a simplification and expansion of the definition and how it operates would both give access to leave, the additional leave for many of our members who have the disutility of regular and unsociable working hours but also provide the benefit of minimising disputes both in the workplace and negotiations for enterprise agreements,” Ms Wischer told the inquiry.

The ANMF says the definition of shift work should be expanded to include night shift. Under current definitions, a nurse could work night shifts from Monday to Friday but not be considered a shift worker.

“The additional week of leave is intended to compensate workers for the disutility of working unsociable hours and irregular hours,” Ms Wischer said.

“The result really of working nights, working on weekends, is that you spend less time with family, you have less ability to participate in social, cultural, and recreational activities compared to those who are day workers, working a shift pattern across nine to five, Monday to Friday.”

ANMF (Vic Branch) Industrial Relations Organiser Mitch Hoover told the inquiry that the current NES definition of a shift worker for the purposes of accessing an additional week’s leave was “vague” and in need of a clearer, fairer and simpler alternative.

“That makes them less likely to fulfil the requirements that enable them to accrue the additional week of annual leave. Likewise, we find that nurses working night shifts during the week, that does not count towards the extra annual leave entitlement, [and it’s] much the same with the dreaded late early shift. When you finish a late shift and you are rostered to start an early shift the next morning, you have enough time only to go home, sleep, and then come back to the hospital.

“That does not count to the accrual under the current definition. And I would challenge anyone to walk up the street to St. Vincent’s [Hospital] and try and convince one of the nurses there that they aren’t working shift work for the purposes of this additional annual leave.”