Fighting on Together? Next steps for the medical workforce

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It’s been a very difficult year for Doctors in Queensland. You’ve been forced to defend your basic working rights and conditions instead of being able to solely focus on your important jobs at hand.

Many of you have voted in the Together ballot or are still considering your position. The reason we undertook the ballot quickly was if a “yes” response was returned, we could get on with supporting doctors with negotiations. And if there was a “no” response, we wouldn’t lose too much campaign momentum. While the ASMOF ballot is being finalised we know that  many of you, however you voted, are still concerned about many aspects of the contracts and their implementation in your HHS. There are also system-wide issues, such as a lack of collective bargaining, the potential to pay junior doctors less and the continued race to the bottom for health policy.

If the majority of doctors across both unions agree to accept the contract framework, it does notmean that the fight to restore your rights is over. Many of the specific remaining issues should be addressed at a local level with the HHS CEO – who will be the employer from July 1st. With support from Together, doctors within each HHS will need to continue campaign action about these issues and also around the issues facing junior doctors.

Together is also building a new campaign, ready to launch soon, which broadens the debate to include other work groups in Health and includes the community: Putting Patients First. This is something that can and will occur even if the contracts go ahead, and more information will be shared and your guidance sought on this campaign soon.

To discuss options for further campaign action on the contracts and implementation, we are proposing a meeting on Monday next week and are inviting any interested Together junior or senior doctors or those interested in joining.

Date: Monday 12 May

Time: 6pm – 7pm

Location: Together Training Centre, 32 Peel Street, South Brisbane

Teleconference facilities will also be provided for those who would like to dial in.

Please let us know by email to health@together.org.au if you would like to participate – we will then send you details for the meeting room venue or teleconference codes.

We remain stronger together.