More than 20,000 doctors will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid overtime and entitlements after the NSW government settled the largest underpayment claim in Australian history.
After a four-year battle in the Supreme Court, NSW Health has agreed to pay $229.8 million to resolve a class action launched on behalf of junior medical officers employed by the department at any point between December 2014 and March 2024.
Lead plaintiff Dr Amireh Fakhouri is now a GP at Utopia Refugee and Asylum Seeker Health at Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s south-west.Credit: Darrian Traynor
Law firms Maurice Blackburn and Hayden Stephens & Associates lodged the class action in December 2020, aiming to recoup tens of millions of dollars in unpaid wages they allege were earned caring for patients under exploitative conditions.
Dr Amireh Fakhouri, a junior doctor at Westmead Hospital between 2015 and 2018 who was the lead plaintiff in the action, said she was proud of the outcome and hoped it would make life better for the next generation of doctors working in the public system.
She said she worked up to 100 hours a week without being paid overtime, often leaving her car at work and taking the bus home after a night shift because she was “too tired and didn’t think it was safe to drive home”.
Now a GP in Melbourne’s south-west, Fakhouri said she initially wanted to specialise in obstetrics and gynaecology in the public system but was discouraged by the culture of working long hours without recognition or financial reward.
Several senior doctors involved in the case confirmed that unpaid overtime was “widespread and systemic”.
“It was never about the money … for me, it was just changing the culture,” she said. “If we [doctors] all leave, we’re not going to have specialists and advanced trainees. And when we’re short on doctors, that impacts patient’s health and safety.”
Fakhouri’s lawyer, Hayden Stephens, said there were a number of tasks, such as arriving early to prepare for ward rounds or staying back to treat an emergency patient after their shift has finished, that hospitals expected junior doctors to perform, often without pay.
Several senior doctors involved in the case confirmed that unpaid overtime was “widespread and systemic”, Stephens said. He said the settlement represented a “seismic shift” in the way junior doctors were treated, and NSW Health had already made changes to address its workplace culture and rostering processes.
“No doctor graduates from medical school and goes into the public health system with the expectation that they won’t be required to work extra hours … the problem was that these hours were not properly recognised,” Stephens said. “By paying for these hours, hospitals will have sight of the actual hours worked by junior doctors and, with that, implement systems and processes that protect doctors from working excessive hours.”
As part of the settlement, doctors who may be eligible will be encouraged to submit claims for their entitlements. Stephens said the amounts were likely to vary anywhere between thousands to several tens of thousands of dollars, depending on the doctor’s circumstances.
The settlement is due to be approved in a court hearing later this year. The terms of the settlement are confidential but do not include NSW Health paying a penalty.
The class action is separate to legal action being pursued by the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF) on behalf of another group of doctors.
Maurice Blackburn principal Rebecca Gilsenan said it was the largest underpayment settlement in Australian history. The settlement exceeds the $180 million in stolen wages the Western Australian government repaid to thousands of Aboriginal people working in the state from the 1930s to 1970s, and the $190 million the Queensland government paid to compensate former Aboriginal workers and their families who had their wages stolen in similar circumstances.
In a list compiled by Monash University class action expert Vince Morabito, only six class action settlements attracted larger payouts. None were related to underpayment or wages.
Health Minister Ryan Park did not comment on the settlement amount as it was yet to be certified by the court, but said he was “deeply troubled” by revelations that junior doctors were not paid their entitlements.
“I know that NSW Health has undertaken a number of measures to address this historical issue and there is more work to do,” he said. “This can never happen again.”
A NSW Health spokesperson said “a range of initiatives” had been implemented to encourage junior doctors to claim overtime, and the department would be in touch with eligible doctors “in the near future”.
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