CV and mad panic behaviour

[Mav]

I have to say that if I were in charge of running a campaign to improve conditions for nurses, I’d also focus on things like parking fees rather than a proposed rise in pay. On its face, it appears unjust that nurses have to pay to work.

But this is not an isolated unfairness. The tax system seeks to preclude or dissuade workers from claiming deductions for expenses they must make to work. All those thousands of people who had to travel into the city to their work couldn’t deduct travel expenses and few employers paid for those expenses. While the ATO saved some pennies on those non-deductions, a flood of non-taxed profits left the country by simple accounting tricks like multinational companies being able to deduct consultancy fees paid to subsidiaries in tax havens in Monaco and the Cayman Islands. And while the Federal Govt ruthlessly sought to claw back JobKeeper payments to individuals, they were proud to say companies could keep their payments even if their profits had trebled during Covid shutdowns. All of this is unfair but that won’t change.

Then you have the problem of FBT. What are the implications for hospitals if they provide free parking for staff? If they have to pay top dollar for that parking to the Federal Govt, it would make more sense to increase pay rather than give fringe benefits.

Has the need to pay parking been factored into salaries via negotiations with Unions? You’d think so, but of course that doesn’t prevent this issue being the spearhead of a pressure campaign.

Then you have the fact that the benefits of free parking wouldn’t be felt evenly by all nurses. Some would be able to make their way to work cheaply because they live close to work or public transport is practical for them or they can ride bikes or motorbikes and avoid parking fees. Or because they work at smaller hospitals or medical centres, they already can find free parking.  They would prefer pay increases rather than accept lower salaries in exchange for free parking.

Do hospitals enter into separate workplace agreements with some freedom to address particular parking issues or are agreements industry-wide? Are parking fees part of the hospital revenues or are they paid to private operators?

I would certainly be supportive of improving conditions generally for nurses. The trick is finding that money given the Federal Govt won’t bankroll it and the Victorian Govt has few other ways of raising revenue. Maybe a short-term Covid-bonus might be worthwhile in retaining and recruiting staff while the Covid crush hits the hospital system.