Exhausted junior doctors who didn’t claim overtime win $175m in backpay

Junior doctors have won a landmark $175 million settlement with the Victorian government over unpaid overtime while working at public hospitals.

The agreement will benefit up to 15,000 staff who worked across 36 Victorian health services between January 2015 and now, who did not log unscheduled overtime because they were unaware of their entitlements or feared it would negatively impact their career.

Michael Hand hopes the case will help stop junior doctors burning out.Credit: Penny Stephens

The in-principle deal, between the hospital doctors’ union and Allan government, was struck after the government lost an appeal against a landmark wage theft case involving a young doctor at Frankston Hospital, awarded more than $8000 for unpaid overtime.

Her case paved the way for a class action against other health services. Junior doctors who have worked in the Victorian public hospital system since 2015 are being urged to register to become part of the group.

The in-principle agreement is now before the Federal Court and could be signed off as soon as April. A court-appointed administrator will then contact all past and current junior doctors to see if they wish to take part in the settlement.

Junior doctors could be in line to receive thousands of dollars in back pay, however the final figure will be determined on a case-by-case basis and after legal fees.

Lawyers hope that once individual cases are assessed, the money could be in bank accounts by late 2026.

Peninsula Health, Monash Health, Western Health, Eastern Health, Alfred Health, Northern Health and some regional health services had been named as part of the class action suit. It is not yet known which hospitals were the biggest unpaid overtime offenders.

One of the doctors expected to receive back pay is Michael Hand, who worked as a junior doctor at Northern Hospital in 2018 and 2019.

Hand said he regularly worked from 7am to 6pm at the Epping hospital, in Melbourne’s north, clocking up to 10 hours of unpaid overtime a week.

“There was an implied understanding that you needed to come in up to an hour before the official paid shift started to prepare the list of patients, their blood results, their medications, their discharge summaries so that the day-to-day ward activities weren’t interrupted to do those tasks,” he recalled.

At the end of shifts, Hand said there was an expectation that junior doctors would work for up to an additional hour to prepare a hand-over as well as compile discharge summaries, medication lists and death certificates.

He said the situation left him fatigued, contributing to his risk of burnout.

“Study after study demonstrates that the more tired and overworked doctors are, the more likely they are to make clinical errors,” Hand said. “That’s compromising patient safety.”

He said the exhausting experience cemented his desire to become a GP, a profession that allows him more control over his hours and a better work-life balance.

“The experience of the overtime certainly consolidated my plan to move into general practice.”

Hand, who now works as a GP at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service in St Albans in Melbourne’s north, described the settlement as “a great relief”. He hopes it paves the way for better conditions for junior doctors across the state.

The Age has followed the backpay proceedings for several years, since junior doctors first sounded the alarm about unrostered overtime causing ill health among staff and increasing the risk of errors.

Discharge summaries, tending to emergency department patients and pre-ward round notes were among the chief drivers of overtime – but medicos said the flow-on effects to patient safety were always their main concern.

Gordon Legal partner Andrew Grech, who was responsible for the class actions along with Hayden Stephens & Associates since they were launched in the Federal Court four years ago, said all parties had done a “terrific job” to settle a complex case.

“It’s a great example of how the class action regime can provide a very powerful pathway for people to get access to legal redress,” he said.

“I think the applicants, including the union and all the doctors who acted – and the health services – are to be congratulated for coming to a resolution on it. It’s now for the court to decide whether it approves the settlement or not.”

Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation president Dr Roderick McRae, from the union that represented the junior doctors, said he hoped it was the end of the saga.

“We look forward to the payments coming through as rapidly as possible.”

A government spokeswoman said the state government took the health and wellbeing of all medical staff seriously.

“It is why we commissioned a review into the Victorian Public Sector Medical Staff Workplace Systems and Employment Arrangements,” she said. “We are currently considering the recommendations of this review.”

A Department of Health spokesman said the parties were pleased to have reached the $175 million in-principle agreement.

“Steps are currently being taken to bring an application for approval of the in-principle agreement before the Federal Court,” he said.

Northern Health was contacted for comment.

Opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier blamed the length and total cost of the saga on “Labor’s incompetence”.

“Now taxpayers will foot a monumental bill,” she said. “Labor can’t manage money, can’t manage health and it’s Victorians who are paying the price.”

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