Emergency doctor wins backpay case

An emergency doctor has won his case against Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, which had been underpaying him for years because it wrongly claimed he hadn’t been doing shift work.

Dr John Trewick has worked at Hastings Hospital since 1992.

In 2011, he was offered, and accepted, a role as head of the hospital’s Emergency Department (ED) Fast Track, which deals with the less serious cases arriving at ED.

Trewick works a roster involving 10-hour work periods over seven days. He is on a salary but, unlike his colleagues working in ED, he does not receive additional payment for hours worked after 7pm on weekdays or at weekends.

In 2013, he asked the DHB why he did not receive the same extra payment. It told him the shift conditions under its multi employer collective ggreement (MECA) did not apply to him.

He contacted his union, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, which also took the matter up with the DHB.

When the health board refused to budge and mediation was unsuccessful, Trewick went to the Employment Relations Authority, asking it to determine whether the shift work clause of the contract applied to him.

Argument centred around what constituted shift work. In hearings held late last year, the DHB said the definition of a shift was when there were two or more shifts in a day and where employees took over from each other at the end of each shift.

The ED Fast Track department had two shifts, from 8.30am to 6.30pm and 1.30pm to 11.30pm, and there was no handover between the two, the DHB said.

Trewick argued the MECA contract had a broad and flexible definition of shift and, as such, he should be paid the same as his colleagues in ED; time and a half for all hours after 7pm and before 8am, and for weekends.

Authority member Trish MacKinnon agreed with Trewick and rejected the DHB’s ‘‘more rigid’’ interpretation.

She said the DHB’s interpretation may be an appropriate definition in some contexts – for example, in manufacturing and industrial settings.

‘‘However, it is clear from the examples provided by counsel for Dr Trewick that it is not necessarily always applicable in the context of a hospital.’’

She ordered the DHB and Trewick to discuss and calculate the arrears he was owed.

A DHB spokeswoman said the board had only recently received the ERA decision.

‘‘It will now take time to review this decision and seek legal advice, and is therefore not in a position to comment at this time.’’