I welcome the agreement reached between the NSW Government and St John of God Health Care that ensures staff at Hawkesbury Hospital will retain all their leave entitlements when their employment transfers over to Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District (NBMLHD) on July 1.

The dedicated staff at Hawkesbury Hospital have served the community for decades and it was important that we all made efforts to ensure that they will be able to carry over leave entitlements, like sick and long service leave, once the hospital transitions to the public system.

I’d like to thank everyone involved in securing this fantastic outcome today including the community members who advocated on behalf of the staff at the hospital, the Health Services Union, the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association and the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation who were passionate advocates for their members.

While I’m glad that in this case both parties were able to come to an agreement that protects the staff’s entitlements, I remain concerned that federal legislation has a loophole which may disadvantage workers.

Currently, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) is silent on staff transfers from a private employer to the public sector yet expressly provides for transfers from public to private.

I have written to my colleague the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, the Hon Tony Burke MP, to request that the Fair Work Act be amended to correct this anomaly and protect workers entitlements where they are transferring from the national system employer to a State public sector employer.

I will continue to work to ensure that this loophole in the legislation is closed and the act operates fairly for all Australian workers.