PENINSULA Health has been penalised more than $300,000 after failing to pay a junior doctor for working overtime.
Dr Gaby Bolton began working at Peninsula Health at the beginning of 2019, working primarily at Frankston Hospital. Her claims of unpaid overtime for work undertaken between January 2019 and January 2021 were “substantially” proven by the Federal Court last year. It found that Peninsula Health failed to pay Dr Bolton on 208 occasions.
Last week the Federal Court reiterated that Peninsula Health had contravened the Fair Work Act 2009 and ordered it to pay $316,260 to the case’s lead applicant, the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation. The ruling made by Justice Bromberg read that the expectation for junior doctors to perform overtime work was “not only known to Peninsula Health through various supervisory or managerial employees but were appreciated by Peninsula Health”.
“There is a wealth of evidence demonstrating that unrostered overtime work by junior doctors was not confined to Dr Bolton but commonly occurred where implied authorisation was given to junior doctors in the same or similar circumstances to those experienced by Dr Bolton. The evidence also demonstrates that many registrars and consultants supervising the work of Dr Bolton knew that Dr Bolton was commonly performing unrostered overtime work,” Bromberg said. “Further still, there were policies and practices adopted by Peninsula Health which demonstrate the reluctance of Peninsula Health to pay for unrostered overtime performed by junior doctors.”
Dr Bolton said the outcome is “a sign of hope for thousands of junior doctors across the state, who simply want to be paid their minimum entitlements for the work they perform.” “I look forward to the day when, like our counterparts in NSW and the ACT, junior doctors don’t have to fight in court to be paid for the hours we worked,” she said.
Peninsula Health chief medical officer, Associate Professor Shyaman Menon, said the hospital has “implemented a number of changes since proceedings against Peninsula Health and 11 other health services were commenced in 2021.” “We expect our junior doctors to record any overtime worked on their timesheets so we can make those payments. Our junior doctors are an essential part of the future of our organisation and we acknowledge the important contribution they make across all our hospitals and healthcare sites,” Menon said. “We are carefully reviewing the comments made by Justice Bromberg in the Federal Court, along with the penalty, and are not in a position to comment further at this time.”
Australian Medical Association Victoria president Dr Jill Tomlinson is calling for changes to the public healthcare system to ensure underpayment does not occur again. “AMA Victoria and ASMOF Victoria have been trying to resolve this issue with Health Services and Victorian Department of Health for many years. Junior doctors are choosing to leave or not join the Victorian public health service knowing that in other states and territories wage theft will not be tolerated,” she said.
First published in the Frankston Times – 5 November 2024