Information Bulletin

Ministry of Health, NSW73 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060

Locked Mail Bag 961 North Sydney NSW 2059Telephone (02) 9391 9000 Fax (02) 9391 9101

http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/policies/

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NSW Health Labour Agreementspace

Document Number IB2016_052

Publication date 18-Oct-2016

Functional Sub group Personnel/Workforce - Recruitment and selectionPersonnel/Workforce - Workforce planning

Summary The NSW Health Labour Agreement allows for the permanentsponsorship of overseas trained health professionals subject to workforcerequirements.

Replaces Doc. No. NSW Health Labour Agreement [IB2016_046]

Author Branch Workforce Planning and Development

Branch contact Workforce Planning and Development 02 9391 9629

Applies to Local Health Districts, Specialty Network Governed Statutory HealthCorporations, Public Health System Support Division, NSW AmbulanceService, Public Hospitals, NSW Health Pathology

Audience Human Resources, Recruitment, Workforce

Distributed to Public Health System, Health Associations Unions, NSW AmbulanceService, Ministry of Health

Review date 18-Oct-2020

Policy Manual Not applicable

File No. 03/9783-6

Status Active

Director-General

INFORMATION BULLETIN

LABOUR AGREEMENT

PURPOSE The Labour Agreement is a formal arrangement between NSW Health and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection which allows for the permanent sponsorship of skilled overseas trained health professionals in accordance with difficult to fill recruitment vacancies.

KEY INFORMATION • Overseas recruitment through instruments such as the Labour Agreement is one of a number of

initiatives used to address areas of workforce shortage across NSW Health, and is in line with state workforce strategies, namely:

o The NSW Health Professionals Workforce Plan 2012-2022 – which notes that improving the supply of an optimally trained workforce across all areas is important to meet the forecast of increased service demand into the future.

• The Labour Agreement allows Local Health Districts, Speciality Networks, NSW Health Pathology and the Ambulance Service of NSW to nominate a yearly quota of 369 skilled overseas health workers for permanent residency under the Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) visa. This quota may be renegotiated at the commencement of each year of the agreement at the discretion of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and subject to labour agreement usage. It is expected the Labour Agreement will continue to:

o Address areas of shortages in the workforce, and

o Allow the Ministry of Health to monitor overseas recruitment activity.

• A number of key changes have been made to Schedule 3, Item 5 of the Labour Agreement:

o Nominees aged between 50 and 60 years of age inclusive must hold the appropriate current registration, and are no more than 60 years of age at time of visa application

o The age requirement may be further varied in addition to meeting the requirements above, to include nominees aged between 60 and 69 years of age at time of visa application where a strong business case has been provided by the sponsor to further extend the age concession, and by express approval between the parties to this agreement.

• In all other respects, the terms and conditions of the Contract remain unaltered.

• Enquiries regarding the use of the Labour Agreement should be forwarded to the Workforce Planning and Development Branch via healthrecruit@doh.health.nsw.gov.au

ATTACHMENTS 1. Labour Agreement

2. Deed of Variation

IB2016_052 Issue date: October-2016 Page 1 of 1