Still Too Many Sick Leave Choices in WorkChoices
AMA Vice President, Dr Choong-Siew Yong, said today that the Workplace Relations Regulations 2006, released this week, do not go far enough in clarifying who can legally issue medical certificates for employee sick leave.
Dr Yong said late minor changes to the Regulations make it clear that, for instance, veterinarians will not be able to certify human illness, but employers and employees will still face uncertainty and confusion over sick leave when the new laws take effect from 27 March.
"The Regulations fail to acknowledge two very serious realities," Dr Yong said.
"One, if people are seriously ill they should be seeing their medical doctor.
"Two, opening up medical certification to a whole range of non-medical practitioners will make it difficult for employers to take sick leave seriously.
"Under the new laws, more than 300,000 registered health practitioners will be permitted to certify sick leave.
"Depending on the definitions in each State and Territory, these registered health practitioners include dentists, podiatrists, osteopaths, chiropractors, pharmacists, and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, to name a few.
"Even though WorkChoices Regulations stipulate that these registered health practitioners can only issue certificates for conditions related to their area of practice, legal advice received by the AMA states that there are very few non-medical health practitioners with a clearly defined 'area of practice'.
"This means that employees could use up all their allowed sick leave without once consulting a medical doctor.
"Sick leave will become a red tape nightmare for employers. Worse, the new laws may encourage workers to avoid their GPs and seek medical certificates from non-medical sources.
"The Regulations provide some clarity about the limits to what type of illness or injury a clearly identifiable professional group such as dentists or podiatrists could certify, but do not address some of the more alternative registered health practitioners.
"The new Regulations also confirm an employer's worst fear - employees will not have to get a certificate from a medical doctor for absences of up to three months. Temporary absences of up to three months can be justified with a certificate from a non-medical health practitioner.
"The Government has tried to address absences for minor illnesses, but has inadvertently opened the floodgates. This is bad for patients who may not get access to the medical care they would need for such a long period off work.
"Medical certification should only be available from medical practitioners. WorkChoices opens up too many unsafe choices for sick leave," Dr Yong said.