Junior doctors secure $31.5m settlement for unpaid overtime

The largest-ever wages underpayment class action settlement in the ACT has been reached, with junior doctors in the territory to be awarded $31.5 million over hospitals’ failure to recognise all their working hours.

In the ACT, an estimated 2,200 junior doctors employed by the ACT government and Calvary Health Care (now North Canberra Hospital) are set to share in a “landmark” $31.5 million settlement, reached with the territory government, for unpaid overtime over the last eight years.

The settlement terms are subject to final approval by the Federal Court, which will be considered later this year.

The news follows the $230 million settlement secured by junior doctors in NSW in April of this year, also over alleged underpayments. That settlement was among the largest-ever awarded for underpayments in Australian legal history.

The lead plaintiff for the proceedings, Dr Ying Ying Tham, said that court action was necessary to address junior doctors’ long-held concerns about hospitals’ failure to recognise all their working hours.

“Our purpose in bringing this case was to ensure junior doctors’ additional hours were properly recognised and fairly compensated,” she said.

“I am pleased the ACT government have seen fit to resolve this case. Our doctors are best focused on our patients, not fighting for our rights in court.”

Tham and the class were represented by Gordon Legal and Hayden Stephens & Associates.

Gordon Legal partner Andrew Grech said: “The ACT government should be commended for prioritising the wellbeing of our doctors by resolving this case.

“In Victoria, junior doctors are now in their fourth year of hard-fought litigation. It’s time the Victorian government took note of their ACT and NSW colleagues and settled these cases to restore trust with their junior doctors.”

Hayden Stephens & Associates director Hayden Stephens, who also represents junior doctors in NSW and Victoria, said the result in the ACT was “a landmark settlement” for the territory.

“Never before has a wage underpayment class action of this size settled in the ACT,” he said.

“Excessive overtime and underpayment of junior doctors at Canberra Hospital and Calvary Health has been a prolonged systemic problem for a number of years.

“This case and others like it around the country represent a seismic shift in the way junior doctors must be treated in their workplace.”

Dr Kerrie Aust, the president of the Australian Medical Association, said: “I’m pleased the ACT government has seen fit to come to the table.

“A hierarchical workplace can lead to a culture of silence among those who are most junior. This is a fantastic result made possible by Dr Tham’s enormous courage in speaking up.”

Subject to the court’s approval of the settlement, a process for assessing the claims of eligible current and former junior doctors will commence early next year.