WorkChoices Making It Easier To 'Chuck A Sickie'

Dr Haikerwal said employees no longer have to go to a medical doctor for medical certification for sick leave; they can visit one of the more than 300,000 registered health practitioners who have new powers from today under WorkChoices.

The term 'registered health practitioner' covers osteopaths, chiropractors, Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, chemists, optometrists, optical dispensers, and podiatrists, to name a few, and the definition may vary from State to State.

Dr Haikerwal said the new laws trivialise sick leave.

"Only medical doctors are covered by rules and regulations governing medical certificates," Dr Haikerwal said.

"Breaching these rules can place a doctor's registration at risk. The rules ensure that doctors properly assess the patient's health and fitness for work, determine the appropriate period needed to be off work, and ban the backdating of medical certificates.

"A medical certificate issued by a doctor is based on many years of experience and training and a holistic assessment of the patient's condition. It is a document an employer can have confidence in.

"No other health professional - or 'registered health practitioner' - is subject to the same legal requirements when it comes to assessing an individual's health and issuing a medical certificate recommending time off work."

The Government recently introduced Regulations to try and clarify that certificates can only be issued within a practitioner's scope of practice - but this did not fix anything. There are still no clear guidelines covering what non-medical health practitioners can or cannot do under WorkChoices.

Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners, for example, study the interaction between Yin and Yang and how it manifests in a flow of energy called Qui, which flows along the twelve meridians of the body - lung, colon, stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidney, pericardium, triple warmer, gall bladder, and liver.

Dr Haikerwal said the sick leave flaw in the Government's legislation is a double whammy that came about because the Government has tried to rectify its earlier error that potentially required a new sick leave certificate for every occasion an employee was off work.

"It will be a red tape nightmare for employers, especially small businesses, as they try to come to grips with who is and who isn't a registered health practitioner, and what they are qualified to certify. And, worse, it will encourage employees to go to people other than their family doctor for health assessments.

"WorkChoices gives employees too many choices on sick leave, and many of them are poor choices for their health," Dr Haikerwal said.