Information for Junior Medical Officers (JMOs)
It is important that NSW Health knows about the hours you are working and that you are paid for all of the hours you are required to work in a timely manner. You have an obligation to submit claims for all additional hours you work above your ordinary hours. By submitting claims for all of the hours you work you are contributing to the accurate recording of JMO hours, which supports workforce management and ensures appropriate management of hospital funding and resources. Failure to claim unrostered overtime worked, or delay in doing so, has a financial impact on the public health system as a whole and impacts NSW Health's ability to manage workload of its junior medical officers.
It is a term of your employment that you verify the hours you have worked. JMOs are required to complete a declaration for each pay period confirming that they have claimed all additional hours worked over and above rostered hours. NSW Health has arrangements in place to ensure you are able to claim all unrostered overtime and to provide you with education and support to promote understanding of the UROC claims process and where to seek assistance to make a claim. This document provides you with a brief overview of this process and to answer some frequently asked questions about claims you can make in UROC.
Local Health District staff will support you to comply with your obligation to claim all unrostered overtime and provide you with support in making claims in UROC. If you have any further queries about how to make claims you should contact your JMO unit or equivalent for guidance.
From the beginning of the 2023 clinical year, JMOs will be able to claim for missed meal breaks and meal allowances, in addition to the current functionality of unrostered overtime and callback claims in the UROC module in StaffLink and via the UROC Mobile App.
You should make a claim for all additional hours you work and any meal allowance associated with that overtime if eligible, callbacks or missed meal breaks as soon as possible after you work the additional hours, and no later than 4 weeks after the time was worked.
The declaration is your confirmation to your employer of the hours that you have worked for the relevant period.
It is important that NSW Health knows about all of the hours you have worked, primarily to ensure that you are paid for all hours you have worked. It is also important for other reasons including:
This is an important declaration that you are required to make in the course of your employment. You must make the declaration truthfully and accurately as NSW Health will rely on it. If there is any reason why you cannot make the declaration, you must take one of the following steps:
You do not need to raise this with your supervisor or Head of Department.
You must not make the declaration if you know you have worked additional hours but have not claimed these. You must instead take one of the above steps.
You will receive email reminders to finalise your UROC claims and sign a declaration confirming that you have submitted claims for all additional hours you have worked.
You must make a declaration for each pay period as soon as possible after the pay period ends.
You must make your claims as soon as possible and complete the declaration on time. Prior to submitting your declaration, you can make a claim in UROC for up to three months.
Once you have made a declaration for a particular pay period you will no longer be able to make a claim for unrostered overtime for that pay period via UROC. We understand sometimes mistakes happen and on occasion, a declaration might be made when you still have claims to make. If you make a mistake, you should speak with your JMO unit and seek assistance to make any outstanding claims using a manual claim form.
You should speak with your JMO unit and explain your circumstances. You will need to complete and submit a Manual Form to the JMO unit to claim the unrostered overtime, callback or meal break. The JMO Unit will assess the claim prior to processing for payment. The form will require an explanation as to why the claim was not submitted in UROC, prior to the declaration being made.
You should enter all claims as soon as possible but no later than 4 weeks after the time was worked. Claims may be entered into UROC within 3 months of the end of the relevant pay period.
Regardless of whether or not the declaration is completed, any claims older than 3 months cannot be entered into UROC. If you cannot make the declaration or you need to submit claims older than 3 months, you should contact your JMO unit to explain your circumstances. This is because it is important that all unrostered overtime is claimed and paid without delay and it is important for your JMO unit to understand why this has not occurred.
If you wish to submit a claim that is 3 months or older, you will need to complete the manual form and submit it to the JMO unit, with an explanation of why you did not make the claim in UROC.
There are quick reference guides and a user guide forclaiming unrostered overtime and using UROC which can be found on the JMO Portal. If you have questions after reviewing these resources please contact your JMO Unit or equivalent.
Under the Public Hospital Medical Officers (State) Award (clause 10), you are entitled to a break from work for the purpose of taking a meal of 30 minutes.
For Monday – Friday day shifts the meal breaks are unpaid. For all other shifts meal breaks are paid.
You must take your meal break for each shift that you work and make every effort to do so. You may not choose not to take your meal break or to work through your meal break. NSW Health understands there may be some limited occasions where you are unable to take a meal break. If you miss your meal break on a Monday – Friday day shift (excluding public holidays) you must make a claim in UROC as described below.
Where, for Monday-Friday Day shifts only:
you are entitled to be paid for the amount of the meal break you have missed.
In UROC, you can select missed meal break and can select the time (1-30 minutes) that you were required to work.
Please speak with your JMO Manager who can assist you with whether you are entitled to make a claim for a missed meal break.
There is a quick reference guide for claiming meal breaks and a user guide for using UROC which can be found on the JMO Portal. If you have questions after reviewing these resources please contact your JMO Unit or equivalent.
A meal allowance is not payable for all overtime worked. In accordance with the Award, the criteria for a meal allowance claim are as follows:
If you satisfy all of the above criteria, you can select meal allowance claim in UROC. You must provide details of:
Medical officers rostered for an on call shift and who are recalled to work are not entitled to claim a meal allowance in respect of the overtime worked for the recall to duty, because notice has been provided to you of the requirement to work when you were rostered to the on-call shift.
Therefore the criteria regarding notice is not satisfied.
The on-call allowance compensates you for holding yourself in readiness to return to work.
This also applies to circumstances where you are rostered as the medical officer required to work if another medical officer calls in sick(sick leave on call shift).
If you are on-call (including sick leave on-call) and you have not left the hospital after your rostered shift ended and you are required to work unrostered overtime immediately following your shift, you may be entitled to a meal allowance if the other criteria are satisfied.
There is a quick reference guide for unrostered overtime claims, including meal allowance claims and a user guide for claiming in UROC which can be found on the JMO Portal. If you have questions after reviewing these resources please contact your JMO Unit or equivalent.
Under the NSW Health Policy Directive PD2019_027 Employment Arrangements for Medical Officers Working in the NSW Public Health Service (Policy Directive) there are a range of circumstances where prior approval of unrostered overtime is not required.
You must review and familiarise yourself with the Policy Directive and the circumstances in which you may work unrostered overtime without prior approval.
You can find a copy of the policy directive here.
Under the policy prior approvalof unrostered overtime is not required when that overtime is necessary as a consequence of the following (further information about each of which can be found in the Policy Directive):
This means that, if you are required to perform work outside of your rostered hours for one or more of these reasons, you are authorised to do so and you do not need to obtain any other prior approval before performing the work.
However, you do need to submit a claim for the overtime through UROC as soon as you can after the hours are worked and no later than 4 weeks. In all other circumstances, unrostered overtime requires approval prior to being worked. This means that if you believe that you are required to work unrostered overtime for any reason other than those outlined in the Policy Directive, you must obtain approval for the unrostered overtime prior to performing it.
If approval is not requested or given, you must not perform the work.
The process for seeking prior approval to work unrostered overtime may be different at each facility. There are local procedures in place at each facility and you will be provided with a copy of this procedure during orientation. You should familiarise yourself with the relevant local procedure each time you move to a different facility.
If you are not provided with a copy of this procedure please contact your JMO unit or equivalent, who will assist you.
Local managers can provide you with any additional information about the process for obtaining approval prior to working unrostered overtime from an appropriate supervisor and what information to include in your UROC claim if you have any queries.
You should note the name and position of the person providing approval to work unrostered overtime so that you can provide as much information as possible in the UROC claim. If the claim relates to a particular patient or patients, the patient MRN must be noted in the claim.
If you require any assistance please: