Newsflash: Public Sector Fixed-Term Employees Change of Employment Status

The Secretary of the Department of Health (DOH) was asked to conduct a formal review of the employment status of each fixed term nurse to either confirm the legitimacy of the fixed term employment status or change the employment status to permanent if the following criteria are met:

• The fixed-term employment has been for a continuous period of 24 months. This could also include regular casual shifts for this period;
• There is clearly an ongoing requirement for those duties or similar duties;
• There has been three or more consecutive fixed-term periods of employment or continuous employment as a casual with regular shifts; and
• Employee preference for permanency is taken into account. You can elect to remain casual if you wish.

If a Head of Agency does not change the employment status of a fixed-term Nurse who meets all the criteria, the onus is on the Head of Agency to justify reasons why the status was not changed. The agreed timeframe for this process was 12 months.

Data has now been provided to the ANMF on the number of fixed term employees. The ANMF understand that 30 Nurses and Midwives who satisfy the criteria have been sent letters to seek their interest in permanent employment.

The ANMF encourage any member, including casuals, who believe that they meet the above criteria and have not been contacted by their employing agency to speak with their Manager and/or contact ANMF Member Support.

Read the PDF version here.

Updates correct as at 2 October 2020.
Authorised by Emily Shepherd, ANMF Tasmanian Branch Secretary