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To: CEO and Melbourne Pathology Management
Fighting for a Fair Deal
Medical scientists and technicians are essential workers in our healthcare system, whether public or private.
A routine part of diagnosis for a patient presenting with a medical issue is doctors ordering a range of pathology tests. And medical scientists and technicians undertake the essential work to test patient samples so that the diagnosis and treatment can be started.
For around a decade Melbourne Pathology, a private pathology provider, has had an expired Enterprise Agreement with its Medical Scientists. Over that decade Melbourne Pathology has fallen behind what are considered the benchmarks for pay and conditions for the health sector.
However, in recent years the company has made record profits, especially during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when testing was essential and provided key information for public policy makers responding to the pandemic. The company seems to have forgotten the heroic efforts of their workforce during the height of the pandemic, putting themselves and their families at risk to go to work to test samples and distribute results.
The company has even boasted about their record profits to shareholders and the financial media.
Why is this important?
The medical scientists and technicians at Melbourne Pathology are only seeking a fair pay increase and the industry standards of five weeks of annual leave and access to long service leave after seven years.
But when asked to make fair increases in pay and improvements in conditions for their scientific and technical workforce, the management at Melbourne Pathology cry poor. While they cry poor, management has had little to say when it is pointed out that the CEO of Sonic Health, the parent company of Melbourne Pathology, is among the top ten paid CEOs in Australia.
It is best practice for medical scientists and laboratory technicians to have five weeks annual leave and access to long service leave after seven years. Melbourne Pathology claims they already give their scientific workforce a competitive salary package. However, if this were true, how would Melbourne Pathology explain losing great staff to other scientific workforces.
Melbourne Pathology medical scientists and technicians would rather solely focus on helping patients and getting their important work done. Instead, they are being forced to take industrial action to get a fair deal. To see medical scientists and technicians stop work is extremely unusual given their dedication and commitment to helping patients.
The medical scientists and technicians at Melbourne Pathology are only seeking a fair outcome that recognises their skills and efforts.