ASMOFQ MOCA 6 September UPDATE
During September, ASMOFQ met three times with Queensland Health for MOCA meetings.
Of concern, ASMOFQ was informed that an approved bargaining framework had not yet been finalised, as Queensland Health were in the process of making a funding submission to Government.
An approved bargaining framework is important because it will allow Queensland Health to properly negotiate on any claim which incurs an additional cost. It is an important step to have completed to be able to bargain in good faith.
Back at the very start of negotiations in February and March 2022, ASMOFQ repeatedly asked Queensland Health if they had an approved bargaining framework. While we never received confirmation or a direct response on this, Queensland Health stated that they were in a position to bargain.
Unfortunately, this was also a problem in the previous MOCA negotiations back in 2018.
Public sector wages policy has been finally determined by the Government, and the direction is that we are required to conclude negotiations by 31 October 2022, so that we are back paid appropriately to 1 July 2022. This is a mere four weeks away, and with no approved bargaining framework by Queensland Health, this forces us on to an unacceptably short timeframe in which to finish negotiations.
ASMOFQ will not stand for this, and we will meet with the Health Minister next month to discuss this further.
ASMOFQ, on behalf of our members, will be not be forced to agree to an inadequate offer, or be forced to consider an offer without sufficient time and ability to consult with our members. Furthermore, we will demand that doctors are back paid to 1 July 2022 regardless of when we are able to reach in-principle agreement (because the delay in reaching an agreement has not been due to ASMOFQ).
In addition, Queensland Health have not withdrawn their claim to force senior doctors on to extended hours shifts without their agreement. ASMOFQ continues to strongly oppose this.
We need to send a clear message to Queensland Health and the Government that doctors have been working above and beyond during this pandemic, and we simply request that in return, we are treated with good faith during these negotiations.
This month in our discussions with Queensland Health, we also expressed our opposition to role substitution of doctors, and continued to advocate for an exemption to the mandatory requirement to access QScript for in-hospital prescribing.
Our next MOCA meeting will be Monday 10 October.
Our negotiations with the Mater on the new SMO Enterprise Agreement are also ongoing, with two further meetings this month. We will provide a more detailed update to those specific members soon.
If you have any queries, please email us at asmofqld@asmof.org.au