Dorevitch pathology workers win pay rises of up to 20pc

Pathology workers will receive pay rises of up to 20 per cent after the Fair Work Commission found fault with their employer.

Almost 1800 pathology workers will receive pay rises of up to 20 per cent after the Fair Work Commission found their ­employer breached good-faith bargaining provisions of federal workplace laws.

The determination follows a bitter dispute between Dorevitch and unions that saw strikes, lockouts and the intervention of the Andrews government in Victoria to stop industrial action having an impact on hospitals.

Dorevitch, a subsidiary of Primary Health Care, is one of the largest pathology providers in Victoria and also operates in southern NSW. Primary Health Care said the determination would cost $4.5 million but its ­impact would be fully offset.

“Primary acknowledges that the commission made some ­adverse remarks about Dore­vitch’s historical approach to bargaining,’’ it said. “Primary takes these matters seriously and had already made a number of changes at Dorevitch, including installing a new CEO in 2017.”

The workers have been stuck on a 2004 enterprise agreement that expired in 2007. Over 11 years, the workers, who earn ­between $20 and $22 an hour, received small pay rises that failed to keep pace with inflation or increases in the minimum wage.

According to a commission analysis, the total pay rises since 2007 ranged from 9 per cent to 24 per cent. Over the same period, the Melbourne CPI increased by 29.5 per cent, the national minimum wage by 40.5 per cent and average wages by 38.8 per cent.

The full bench found Dore­vitch acted unreasonably by failing to make a pay offer during 12 months of negotiations.

Health Services Union organiser Ray Collins said he would open every meeting by asking whether Dorevitch had a wage offer yet, and its representative, Jennifer Fraumano, would ­respond: “You have our wage offer, it’s zero.” She denied making the comment.

The full bench found Dore­vitch failed to comply with the good-faith bargaining requirements in the Fair Work Act. It said the appropriate course was to increase rates of pay in the 2004 agreement by an amount that would preserve their real value.

“The actual increases involved will be in the range of approximately 4 per cent to 20 per cent,’’ it said. “We reject Dorevitch’s submissions that pay increases which maintain the real value of the 2007 rates would have a “chilling” effect on bargaining.

Given the history of bargaining, and Dorevitch acting unreasonably and not complying with the good-faith bargaining ­requirements, it said a substantial proportion of the total increase should be payable from July 1, 2017.