High Court action on doctors’ meals

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 31

High Court action on doctors’ meals

PA Auckland Junior doctors are taking legal action over an Auckland Hospital Board decision to make them pay for their meals. The $5 to $7 meal charges came into effect on Monday. But even as the young, doctors began forking out for their food, their national association was starting legal proceedings in the High Court at Auckland. The Resident Medical Officers’ Association is seeking an interim injunction to stop the meal charges, The doctors, who earn between $30,000 and $40,000 a year, have a long-standing claim that

free meals are part of their terms of employment. The Auckland president of the association, Dr Matthew Brick, said legal action might seem a drastic measure, but it was forced by the Hospital Board’s refusal to negotiate. At the Hospital Board’s finance and general purposes committee meeting the board’s chief executive, Mr lan Campbell, said the legal action was Jikely.to go ahead before the end of the week. But free meals were not a condition of employment for the doctors and the charges would continue.