Doctors make call on strike action after fresh pay offer
A new offer to the state’s public sector doctors including a three-year agreement with a compounded pay rise of 13.6 per cent has been endorsed by the South Australian Salaried Medical Officers Association (SASMOA) for consideration by its members.
It means a planned full-day strike for Wednesday has been suspended, and follows discussions between Premier Peter Malinauskas, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector Kyam Maher and SASMOA’s leadership late last week.
A formal offer was put to SASMOA yesterday afternoon.
SASMOA will meet with members tomorrow at the Adelaide Convention Centre at a stop-work meeting to present them the offer.
Premier Malinauskas said the state’s doctors “deserve this fair and reasonable pay rise”.
The offer extends the previous offer of a $4050 increase to base pay to all junior doctors and senior registrars.
Further, the four-year salary and allowance increases will see doctors paid 3.5 per cent more in the first year (backdated to 14 April 2025), 3.25 per cent more in the second year (from 14 April 2025), 3.25 per cent in the third year (from 14 April 2027) and 3 per cent in the final year (from 14 April 2028).
Other elements of the offer include incentives of nearly $40,000 to attract and retain doctors in regional areas, formal recognition of Rural Generalists and an increase in their attraction and retention allowance from 30 per cent to 45 per cent.
Further, the government has offered to increase minimum breaks between shifts from eight hours to 10 hours, to ensure public health duties continue as the primary responsibility of medical officers, to increase professional development payments for junior doctors in accredited training programs from $8500 to $10,000 and a 13 per cent salary and allowance increase over the life of the three-year agreement for consultants.
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“This offer ensures South Australia’s junior doctors’ pay is nationally competitive and delivers a significant additional pay boost recognising the important work they do,” Premier Malinauskas said.
“We’re also offering generous incentives to attract and retain doctors in regional South Australia.
“I want to thank SASMOA and its leadership for working collaboratively with the government and negotiating in good faith to get the best outcome for its members.”
At a press conference this morning, SASMOA president Dr Laura Willington welcomed the offer.
“This agreement also enshrines 20 per cent non-clinical time for doctors, which recognises the important roles that doctors play not only clinically, but they need to do non-clinical work which involves research, teaching and quality improvement projects,” she said.
“This has allowed us, at present, to suspend the strike action for six weeks while we hopefully come to a final agreement.”
For any offer to be formally agreed there must be an independent ballot of all salaried medical officers on a date yet to be determined.
