The state's underpayment of wages is 'systemic and widespread,' doctors claim
Two Victorian public health service providers now face a legal battle after their ‘doctors in training’ filed a class action before the Federal Court in late October. The suit follows other proceedings that have been launched against the state’s health services this year.
The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation of Victoria (ASMOF) and a doctor filed against Eastern Health and Royal Women’s Hospital. The suit alleges the ‘doctors in training’ have worked “unrostered and unpaid overtime” while employed by either or both health service providers.
In their statement of claim, the doctors allege that since October 2015, they have worked hours “in excess of their ordinary hours or rostered hours and were not paid for those unrostered overtime hours.” They further said that the providers’ failure to pay is a breach of their obligations under their respective enterprise agreements, and as a result, they have allegedly breached s 50 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
The court has since sent out orders to the parties to submit the necessary documents, and it has also opened the possibility of mediation.
The case joins other claims for repayment of unrostered overtime and penalties against other hospitals for breaches of the same Act. The ASMOF has also launched class actions against Peninsula Health, Monash Health, Latrobe Regional Hospital and Western Health.
On its website, the ASMOF said that “more than 1100 Victorian Doctors in training have come together to file class actions against the state’s health services for systemic and widespread underpayment of wages.”
The said doctors had sought Gordon Legal and Hayden Stephens & Associations to pursue the claims.
