NSW Health to settle ‘largest’ class action

A class action alleging NSW Health underpaid clinicians has settled after the department agreed to a payout of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

Over 20,000 junior doctors across NSW could benefit from the $230 million settlement for the alleged underpayment of overtime and other entitlements.

Law firms Hayden Stephens and Associates and Maurice Blackburn, which represented the plaintiffs, said the settlement was the largest underpayment class action outcome in Australian legal history.

Dr Amireh Fakhouri brought the claim on behalf of junior doctors who worked in the state’s public health system from December 2014 to December 2020.

“Our purpose in bringing this was to ensure junior doctors’ work was properly recognised. This was not about us asking for more money; it was simply about us being paid for the actual hours that we work. I want to thank all my many colleagues who supported me in this case and especially those senior doctors within our hospitals who stood with us,” Dr Fakhouri said.

Dr Fakhouri was employed by NSW Health from 2015 to 2018, completing her internship and residency at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital.

“Since this action has commenced, it’s been pleasing to receive reports that cultural change is beginning to occur with junior doctors encouraged to properly record their work hours. I am very pleased that NSW Health has resolved this action prior to trial. It is in everyone’s interests that doctors spend their time treating patients rather than in the courts.,” she said.

Greens NSW health spokesperson Dr Amanda Cohn, who is a former GP and emergency doctor, said her own junior years were traumatic.

“I became a GP for many reasons, but one of them was to get out of the brutally hierarchical hospital system that made it hard to turn up to work every day. This is a clear message that exploitation of the skill and commitment of healthcare workers is unacceptable and cannot continue,” Dr Cohn asserted.

Hayden Stephens & Associates Director, Hayden Stephens, added that concerns over the dangerous working conditions of junior doctors were ignored for years.

“Failure to recognise the actual working hours of junior doctors has been a longstanding and widespread problem across our hospitals for years. This landmark settlement now represents a seismic shift in the way junior doctors are treated in their workplace.

“Any workplace that is strictly hierarchical can lead to a culture of silence among those who are most junior. Dr Fakhouri showed enormous courage in speaking up. She received support from many colleagues, including senior doctors who knew junior doctors were not being treated fairly and were suffering from burnout,” he said.

Maurice Blackburn Principal Rebecca Gilsenan said it was “a landmark settlement” and called on more junior doctors to register for a share of the settlement.

“Never before has a wage underpayment class action settled in Australia of this size. Underpayment of junior doctors across NSW hospitals has been a systemic problem for a long time, and this class action will result in real change. In fact, it already has. Our clients report that NSW Health has already implemented several improvements in the workplace. In that way, the class action has achieved lasting systemic change for some of the hardest workers in our health system,” she said.

Provided the settlement is approved by the Supreme Court of NSW, a process for assessing the claims of current and former doctors will begin this year.

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