New Senior Medical Practitioner Agreement Victoria, Australia

Few things in my job make me more excited than the negotiation, agreement and final publication of a new Enterprise Agreement or Award for Senior Medical Practitioners in Australia. 

Agreed between the relevant state chapter of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the state or territory government these ‘Awards’ detail and provide surety in regards to your base salary, allowances, leave and so on. Basically, all your entitlements and benefits. They tend to be negotiated in 3 year cycles with mandated salary increases for each year. Hurrah!

The new 2022-2026 Medical Specialist Enterprise Agreements is now available for the state of Victoria. It came into effect on November 2022.

The key takeaways for Specialists include:

* Increase of 4 weeks to 14 weeks paid parental leave for primary carer and an additional week for non‐primary carer. Employee couples can combine leave and take 16 weeks between them.

* Climate and Sustainability clause.

* Ministerial Review to take place within first six months of approval of agreement to look at out of hours work and remuneration.

* Salary increases (including applicable allowances) with dated increases: 

2.75% 1 March 2022

2.5% 1 September 2023

2.5% 1 March 2025

* An increase and change to professional development allowance to allow up to $5000 per year to be spent on IT.

* Rural Location Attraction and Retention Allowance payable to doctors employed by designated rural health services.

* An additional 25% loading for work between 6pm and midnight Friday (from March 2023).

* Access to long service leave after 7 years to align with the existing employment act.

This Award applies to Melbourne and regional services.

The new regional service allowances are substantial (25% of base salary in some instances) and the Federal Government is also throwing in an additional AUD13k. 

Here are examples of these new total remuneration package rates (rounded  for ease of presentation).

These numbers include base salary, private practice allowances, superannuation, on call allowances, and professional development allowances. Other allowances apply on top such as overtime etc. 

Please contact me if you would like more information about this new award in Victoria, your eligibility to work in Australia or salaries in different places.