Commission upholds NSWNMA case against Ramsay over miscalculated annual leave.

The NSWNMA has achieved an historic win in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) that will deliver backpay to thousands of current and former Ramsay Health Care staff this year.

The Association estimates Ramsay’s total backpay liability to be well over $10 million.

Some nurses could be owed several thousand dollars after the Commission agreed with the NSWNMA that Ramsay had been miscalculating annual leave payments for up to six years.

Thousands of nurses will now need to be backpaid for shift and weekend penalties they would have received if they hadn’t taken annual leave.

NSWNMA General Secretary Shaye Candish said Ramsay decided not to appeal the decision to a full bench of the FWC.

Shaye said it was too early to know exact backpay amounts but a full time, shift-working RN could receive more than $1000 per year for up to six years.

“We understand that Ramsay needs to review about two million payslips,” she said.

“It could take several months for Ramsay to calculate backpay for all affected current and former employees.”

The union took Ramsay to the FWC because it believed Ramsay had been miscalculating payments to staff while on annual leave due to a misinterpretation of the Ramsay enterprise agreement (EA).

The case centred on the interpretation of EA clauses which dealt with the calculation of annual leave loading, shift payments and allowances while staff were taking annual leave.

The NSWNMA argued that clauses 8.1.19 and 8.1.20, when read together, meant that nurses who take annual leave should be paid shift and weekend penalties they would have earned had they not been on leave.

The union also argued that nurses who take annual leave should additionally receive annual loading of 17.5 per cent or the average of allowances and shift penalties from the previous six months.

Ramsay argued that the EA had been written ambiguously and meant something other than what the words said.

The company asked the FWC to have the agreement varied and rewritten to reflect their interpretation.

FWC Deputy President, Thomas Roberts, found that Ramsay’s case should be dismissed and the EA not varied.

He also found the NSWNMA’s interpretation of how annual leave is paid was correct.

The NSWNMA says backpay should go back to 2018, though Ramsay has yet to respond to the Association on that point.