13 September 2019

You must receive 3.5 rostered days off work every fortnight. Two of these days must be consecutive and the remainder must be either 1.5 consecutive days off or 3 half days off. [Clause 33.7]

If you find that within a fortnight your roster does not include 2 consecutive days off, plus another 1.5 days off made up of whole or half days, you’ll need to flag this with your Medical Workforce Unit (or whoever sends you the roster) and ask them to please change it to comply with Clause 33.7 of DiT Enterprise Agreement. It is a good idea to politely request that they respond within a week, which will provide you with a timeframe within which to escalate the matter further. If you receive a negative response or no response at all within the requested timeframe, you could contact your Head of Unit to let them know about the situation and ask if they can help. 

If the breach does not change, despite following the steps above, you should get in touch with the AMA Victoria Workplace Relations team with your roster and a record of your communication so far. We can then contact your employer.

Given that issues like this can take a few weeks to resolve, you should check your roster at the beginning of the term so you can raise concerns early. 

Keep records of all communication in writing; if you receive a verbal response at any point you can ask them to please put it in an email for your records. Should they refuse to write it in an email, or if they delay more than a business day to do so, you can write to them to document their response. For example:

“Thank you for calling me on ***** regarding my enquiry about *****. I am writing to keep a record of your response in case needed for future reference. My understanding is that you will ***** by deadline *****. If I have misunderstood anything please let me know. Thank you for your help with this matter.”

Keep everything succinct and respectful.

Download a copy of your 2018-21 Doctors in Training Enterprise Agreement here: https://bit.ly/2DIDAOQ

If you would like to discuss any concerns relating to your employment conditions, please contact the AMA Victoria Workplace Relations team on (03) 9280 8722.