Victorian doctors will regroup after today’s state-wide industrial action was cancelled at the last minute following legal advice.
Victorian public hospital doctors will meet tonight to plan the next steps of an ongoing industrial campaign after today’s planned industrial action was cancelled at the last minute.
The 24-hour, state-wide industrial action would have been the largest to date, but the Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) Victoria cancelled the industrial action and protest at Parliament House after receiving legal advice yesterday.
On Friday, the Victorian government said it would block the action over concerns that there would not be enough hospital staff to ensure patient safety.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) Victoria and ASMOF Victoria have been negotiating with the state government for more than a year over a new enterprise bargaining agreement to address unsafe hours, unpaid overtime and burnout.
AMA Victoria director of workplace relations and ASMOF Victoria CEO, Grant Forsyth, said ASMOF Victoria had withdrawn the planned 24-hour stoppage after legal advice and discussions in the Fair Work Commission yesterday.
“On Friday, the government advised us that if it did not believe hospitals could be sufficiently staffed during the stoppage, it would use technical and patient safety mechanisms available to it to seek to stop the action,” he said.
“That has occurred.”
Mr Forsyth said they had also sought the Fair Work Commission’s intervention in the bargaining dispute.
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“After more than a year of negotiations, our agreement has been expired for seven months and the Victorian Government has still not put an offer on the table,” he said.
“Our application for the Commission’s assistance will be accepted, giving us another avenue to push for progress and seek to bring this extraordinary delay to an end.”
Victorian health minister Ingrid Stitt welcomed the ASMOF’s decision to cancel the industrial action.
“We will always support the rights of Victorian workers to take protected industrial action – but this should never compromise patient safety,” Ms Stitt said.
“I welcome the decision by ASMOF to withdraw their industrial action and we will work constructively with them through the appropriate industrial relations processes.”
The unions are calling for a 30% pay rise over four years and relief from excessive workloads, workforce shortages, unsafe hours, fatigue and burnout.