A resolution between warring psychiatrists and the NSW government will be derailed if thousands of doctors walk off the job for three days next week after a judge blasted the doctors’ union for defying his orders.
While their union was in an urgent hearing at the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) on Thursday, doctors began receiving letters from hospital executives warning them against striking for the first time in almost 30 years.
The Herald revealed on Tuesday that thousands of doctors across the state were planning a three-day strike. Credit: Nic Walker
The decision by the Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation (ASMOF NSW) to proceed with the strike defied Acting Justice Peter Kite’s orders to cease organising and refrain from any industrial action for three months.
ASMOF expects a significant portion of its 9000 members to participate in the strike. So far, staff at 32 hospitals have signed up to strike, spanning specialties including surgery, anaesthetics, emergency and intensive care.
NSW Health has said it would manage impacts on emergency departments to maintain patient safety.
The doctors are demanding a pay rise of up to 30 per cent over an unspecified period to match wages in other states. The government has offered 10.5 per cent over three years.
The commission was due to hear expert evidence on Friday from the union and the state government in their separate dispute over the mass resignation of around 200 public sector psychiatrists.
But Honourable Justice David Chin on Thursday asked the union’s lawyers why that arbitration should continue while doctors continued to defy orders not to strike.
The union’s barrister Thomas Dixon said the strikes were “not designed to support” the psychiatrists’ claims but to advance doctors’ concerns “more generally”.
“Why does it matter why you’re striking?” Chin asked Dixon, adding it was a requirement under the state’s industrial relations act to comply with the commission’s orders.
Dixon said that, while union members, the psychiatrists had no control over actions by the wider membership, and would be “affected by a decision they may oppose”.
Chin suggested the union “just hasn’t thought through the implications of its resolution” to defy the orders.
“I can’t speculate on that,” Dixon said. “The mass resignations had the potential to affect service delivery in NSW … it’s in everyone’s interests to dissolve the psych dispute expeditiously.”
In an affidavit submitted to the court, ASMOF NSW executive director Andrew Holland said the union could contact psychiatrists to advise them to not participate in the strike.
Dan Fuller, the barrister representing NSW Health, said that was “just not good enough”.
“Unlawful industrial action should be reason enough to dismiss this proceeding,” Fuller said.
Chin reminded the union’s lawyers on at least four occasions that they could not participate in arbitration while simultaneously organising industrial action.
“You can’t have both. Full stop,” Chin said.
The commission’s full bench – comprising Kite, Chin and Senior Commissioner Nichola Constant – ordered the union to provide written confirmation they would back down from the strike by 9am on Friday.
Otherwise, the hearing would be cancelled and the psychiatrists’ case would not be heard again until the following Friday, when the commission would decide whether arbitration could continue.
Hospitals issue warning
In an email sent to medical staff at several Sydney hospitals on Thursday, hospital executives warned the strike had “the potential to negatively impact upon patients” and they could be reported to state and national healthcare watchdogs if they walked off the job.
The Herald revealed on Tuesday that thousands of doctors across the state were planning a three-day strike.
If it proceeds, it will be the first time in NSW history that both junior and senior medical officers from across specialties have walked out on NSW hospitals.
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correction
A previous version of this story attributed quotes to acting justice Peter Kite that should have been attributed to Honourable Justice David Chin.