AMA VICDOC Spring 2023 - Magazine - Page 26
There’s a culture among some health services
of having little appreciation of what their
workforce is doing or what work is actually being
performed. Speaking from my own experience
working in large organisations, cultural change
does not come about unless there is a concerted
effort by the leadership to change it.
HAYDEN STEPHENS
KATE Who are the 12 health services?
HAYDEN Peninsula Health, Monash
Health, Latrobe Regional Hospital,
Bairnsdale Regional Health Service,
Western Health, Eastern Health,
Royal Women’s Hospital, Alfred Health,
St Vincent’s Health, Northern Health,
Bendigo Health, and Melbourne Health.
KATE How long is all this going
to continue?
HAYDEN As long as it takes. As I’ve said
publicly, I don’t think doctors should be
in the courts fighting for their rights, they
should be in hospitals caring for patients.
It’s time the Victorian Government
stepped in and said to the Secretary of
the Department of Health, Professor
Euan Wallace “this is happening on
your watch”; support the Government’s
commitment to stop wage theft and
resolve these cases now”.
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AMA VI C TO RIA
KATE A lot of doctors I speak to think that
their entitlement to overtime payment is
futile because they say, “no one went to the
head of the department for sign off ” or
“It was just understood you don’t claim”.
What were the key arguments in the
case that addressed those points?
HAYDEN Under the Enterprise Agreement,
a doctor is entitled to payment for their
unrostered overtime in circumstances where
the work that they perform is authorised.
A central issue in the case was the
interpretation of “authorisation” and
how does that operate in a workplace
like a hospital?
Peninsula Health argued that this idea
of authorisation was limited to express
authorisation, that is, in the absence of a
senior doctor giving an express direction,
it cannot be said that the junior doctor
was required to work overtime.
