ANMF act on wage theft for multi-disciplinary allowance

29 September 2026

ANMF Tasmanian Branch Secretary Emily Shepherd said the Tasmanian Government has for many years reluctantly paid the MDA to our hard-working community mental health members, Ms Shepherd said.

“In the last 12 months, the Government actually stopped paying the allowance to those who were already receiving it.

“It appears that was all due to an assessment applied outside of the already agreed industrial entitlement that meant members were unilaterally refused the allowance or had their allowances cut.

“There is no other way to describe this non-payment and, worse still, removal of payment of the MDA to our members as systematic wage theft.

“The agreement is explicitly that if a nurse is working alongside an allied health staff member in a case management capacity, then they should be paid the MDA.

“But the ANMF has not only had to raise this entitlement during current public sector bargaining for remedy, but have also had to take every individuals member cases to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.”

Ms Shepherd said while the ANMF is celebrating a recent positive win for a member who was back paid their MDA, the ANMF is now preparing to lodge another tranche of 10 applications in the TIC for members who similarly should be being paid the MDA.

“The fact that the Government has been well aware of this issue for years, yet sought not to address this in a systematic way and have expected nurses working in community mental health to have to fight for the wages to which they are entitled is shocking.

“It makes members feel even less valued than they already are, particularly in light of members still waiting on an offer through public sector nurses and midwives EBA bargaining.”

Ms Shepherd said major corporations like Woolworths and Coles will be required to pay a remediation payment of around $1 billion, after a recent Federal Court decision due to flawed salary payments to staff and BHP similarly will have to remedy underpayments equivalent to $430 million to their staff, the Tasmanian Government continues to ignore their own underpayments to community mental health nurses.

“Not only is it illegal to underpay staff, the fact is the Tasmanian Government is using nurses to achieve their $700 million in health efficiencies by underpaying them.

“The ANMF will not stand by and watch the Tasmanian Government get away with wage theft.

“We will not only represent each member to get what they are owed – we will consider further legal avenues to remedy the matter once and for all if required.”

The ANMF encourages all community mental health nurses who are not being paid the MDA when they should be or have had their MDA payments ceased to contact our member support team so that we can recoup the wages to which you are entitled.