Medical matters

Keep at least two thing in mind when you need medical care:

1. Your health and your employment are tied up in a variety of important ways: Sick leave, temporary or permanent disability provisions, ill-health termination provisions, workplace health and safety requirements, and the workplace injury insurance scheme.
2. Little health issues have ways of getting huge—quickly. And it's not only rules and paperwork, it's your health and well-being we're taking about.

As with anyone who talks to a lot of people, I find myself repeating certain phrases. A likely candidate for the most repeated is:

Get advice from your doctor—
and follow it.

That suggestion, unfortunately, too often follows questions to me like, "What should the doctor's note say?" or "How long should the doctor write the note for?" I also get, "My doctor thinks that I should..." followed by one of a seemingly endless number of reasons why the advice will be disregarded.

Any path of action relying on misdirection, misrepresentation or misunderstanding, meanders in the shadow of disaster.

Where employment is affected, the Union and the member must both know the doctor's genuine opinion and advice. The Union can work with that.

Anything less imperils the Union's ability to effectively represent the member's interests.

We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
—Marcus Fabius Quintilian (ca 35-100)

Promises, promises

There's a difference between "reassuring words" and an enforceable employment contract.

In a recent decision (Suzanna Joy McDermid v Samsung Electronics Australia Pty Ltd), Commissioner Thatcher accepted that the human resources officer in the matter, "...by his actions and reassuring words caused [Ms McDermond] to believe that she would continue on after 7 November 2008 as an ongoing employee." She didn't.

In finding that an enforceable employment contract did not exist, the Commissioner cited, as had a full bench in an earlier matter, "The Law Of Employment" (4th edition, 1997 by the Hon James Macken, Paul O'Grady and Carolyn Sappideen). Here's their list of elements essential to a contract:

1. There must be an ‘intention’ between the parties to create a legal relationship, the terms of which are enforceable.
2. There must be an offer by one party and its acceptance by the other.
3. The contract must be supported by valuable consideration.
4. The parties must be legally capable of making a contract.
5. The parties must genuinely consent to the terms of the contract.
6. The contract must not be rendered ineffective by reason of conduct which is illegal or contrary to public policy.

This isn't about legal advice. But it is about remembering that even the best intentions do not, necessarily, commit a University.

If you think that a commitment has been made to you, contact the Union to find out if it will be enforceable.

Of course there's some justice in the world:
You are, after all, the person you deserve to be.
—Yllib Ybnad (b. 1948)