MECA CLAUSE

11. Definitions

In this Agreement:

11.1  “Dental Specialist” means any dental practitioner who is registered by the Dental Council under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 as a dental specialist in one of the approved branches of dentistry and who is employed in that branch of dentistry or in a similar capacity with minimal oversight.

11.2  “Dental Officer” means any dental practitioner who is registered under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and who falls within the coverage clause of this Agreement and who is not a dental specialist.

11.3  “Medical Specialist” means any medical practitioner who is vocationally registered by the Medical Council under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 in one of the approved branches of medicine and who is employed in either that branch of medicine or in a similar capacity with minimal oversight.

11.4  “Medical Officer” means any medical practitioner who is registered under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 and who falls within the coverage clause of this Agreement and who is not a medical specialist.

11.5 “Fellow” for the purposes of clause 12 means a medical practitioner who has recently met the requirements to be vocationally registered by the Medical Council under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 in one of the approved branches of medicine and who is employed in that branch of medicine in a position for the purpose of acquiring further skills and experience.

11.6  “Full-time employee” means any employee who is employed under this Agreement for forty (40) hours or more on average each week.

11.7  “Full pay” means the employee’s usual gross fortnightly earnings (based on their agreed job size and current remuneration schedule).

For the avoidance of doubt, where an employee’s earnings vary from week to week, “usual” gross fortnightly earnings means the employee’s average gross earnings over the relevant roster pattern.

11.8  “Non-clinical duties” means duties not directly associated with the diagnosis or management of a particular patient. They may include administration, attendance at departmental meetings, formal teaching sessions, audit or other quality assurance activities and personal professional development, including journal reading and research.  Duties associated with managerial or leadership roles [refer Clause 48.2(e) – Section 5] are not to be included as part of an employee’s non-clinical time.

11.9  “Ordinary Hourly Rate” means the hourly rate derived by dividing the employee’s nominal annual base salary rate by 2086.

11.10  “Part-time employee” means any employee who is employed under this Agreement for less than forty (40) hours on average each week.

11.11  “Redundancy” means a situation where an employee’s employment is terminated or changed, whether by an increase or decrease in hours, a change from full-time to part-time or from part-time to full-time and the termination or change is attributable to the operational requirements of the employer. However, where a reduction in hours does not reduce the employee’s weekly average to below 40, severance shall not apply.

11.12  “Service” means all total aggregated service as a salaried medical or dental practitioner with the employer (or predecessors), university, government department or ministry, statutory body, or the armed services. Provided that this definition shall not apply for the purposes of any grandparented entitlements e.g. long service leave and retiring gratuities, or any other service-related entitlement in this Agreement that expressly includes its own definition of qualifying service.

Further, placement on the salary scale will be in accordance with Clause 12.2(a) below. 

Where an employee changes from one position with an employer party to another position with an employer party, including by way of resignation, service will be regarded as continuous where the time between finishing one position and commencing the new position is no more than 3 months (or a different period of time as agreed with the employer, being no less than three months).

The length of service for parental leave (Clause 28 below) means current continuous service (i.e. broken by periods of no more than three months) in the employment of the employer.