Exhausted junior doctors sue for millions in unpaid overtime

Junior doctors are being invited to join class actions against health services amid claims they are being systematically exploited.

Victoria’s public hospitals are being sued by their own young doctors desperate to ­reduce their exhausting hours and claw back millions of dollars in unpaid wages.

The first of at least 30 planned lawsuits has been filed in the Federal Court against Peninsula Health.

More than 10,500 Victorian junior doctors have been invited to join class ­actions against other health services over what unions ­allege is systemic pressure to work unpaid overtime.

The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation’s Victorian president, Roderick McRae, said medics had no choice other than to pursue legal action unless the Andrews government and health services immediately resolved the overtime issue.

“It is a deliberate or wilful blindness towards paying the junior medical staff,” Dr McRae said.

“This is about patient care and safety because nobody wants any medical practitioner who is looking after them to be exhausted, and they are exhausted because nobody is paying attention to the true amount of time that is having to be put in.”

Karla Villafana-Soto says her colleagues are overworked and underpaid. Picture: Tony Gough

Although also known as doctors in training, junior doctors are fully qualified and typically have between one and eight years’ experience in public hospitals.

Represented by law firms and Gordon Legal and Hayden Stephens and Associates, the doctors’ class actions also have the backing of the Australian Medical Association.

Dr McRae said evidence was being compiled of the real hours worked by junior doctors, pressure ­exerted not to record overtime and alteration of time sheets in some health services.

The AMA’s most recent survey of doctors in training found young medics were working an average of 16 hours — and in some cases up to 25 hours — a week overtime mostly without pay.

The same survey found half of Victoria’s young doctors admitted making clinical errors while fatigued.

According to AMA figures, in their first year out of university a hospital intern is paid about $40 an hour for a 38-hour week, meaning some may have worked more than $100,000 worth of unpaid overtime.

While the unions and law firms are not yet placing a global figure on how much doctors are seeking, the Peninsula Health lawsuit lodged on Friday seeks payment of unpaid overtime for the past six years.

Gordon Legal partner ­Andrew Grech said the ­action also sought penalties against the health service for alleged breaches of its enterprise agreements and the Fair Work Act.

While the state has 38 health services overseeing its hospitals, up to 70 per cent of the doctors in training are ­employed in 10 main tertiary centres in Melbourne.

Frankston Hospital is owned by Peninsula Health . Picture: Sarah Matray

Intensive care registrar Nathan Abraham, chairman of the AMA’s doctors in training committee, said the hours demanded of young doctors was putting lives at risk.

Rather than seeking to ­increase doctors’ pay packets, Dr Abraham said forcing hospitals to record and pay overtime would force them to cut dangerously long shifts and improve staffing.

“We are seeing a whole bunch of unrostered, unpaid overtime being performed, essentially propping up the healthcare system,” Dr Abraham said.

“What we want to see is reasonable staffing and we want to see doctors’ welfare and patient care put at the forefront.”

SYSTEM ‘SILENCES JUNIOR DOCTORS’

Junior doctor has described a “broken system” in Victoria’s public hospitals leading to widespread mental illness among young medical professionals.

Karla Villafana-Soto, who worked in several city hospitals as a junior doctor, said chronic understaffing and a culture of bullying and exploitation was damaging the lives of young medics and endangering patients.

Dr Karla Villfana-Soto used to work at several Victorian health services and was overworked and underpaid. Picture: Tony Gough

Dr Villafana-Soto, who is now a workplace relations adviser at the Australian Medical Association, told the Herald Sun the safety of patients and doctors was at the forefront of the decision to sue public hospitals.

“The reason we’re going forward with this is because we want to protect our patients — this is not about money,” she said.

“When you are overworked, anxious and constantly having to rush things, mistakes are inevitable.

“We have a broken system that silences junior doctors. The 12-month contracts mean we have to beg for our jobs every single year.

“If you speak up about poor conditions or treatment during the year, you won’t be actively punished, but come the next year you just won’t be employed again.”

Dr Villafana-Soto said working in metropolitan hospitals had taken a toll on her mental health.

“It affected my work-life balance so much — I didn’t have time to exercise or get to any hobbies, and my time with my partner was so minimal,” she said.

Villafana-Soto is employed part-time as a doctor at Ballarat Health, which she says has been a supportive workplace.

“The department I work for has been very supportive of the wellbeing of its junior doctors and encourages them to claim their overtime, which is very unusual and certainly not what I experienced at other Victorian health services I’ve worked for.”