Doctors in the ACT's public hospital are hopeful the Fair Work Commission will be able to end more than two years of deadlocked talks on a fair pay rise.
The commission will decide on the pay rise for ACT public hospital doctors after unsuccessful talks and months of industrial action.
The Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation ACT applied to the commission to have it settle the wage dispute.
The move was initially opposed by the ACT government, who have now softened their position.
ASMOF ACT members threatened to escalate industrial action, but the government withdrew its opposition to the application this week.
A government spokesman said arbitration would be the quickest way to resolve the dispute. Labor also promised arbitration at the election.
"The government did not oppose the application as we believe this will provide the quickest pathway to resolving the pay dispute through a binding arbitration process," the spokesman said.
The government was in caretaker mode until last Wednesday.
Doctors have been locked in enterprise bargaining negotiations with the ACT government for more than two years.
Earlier this year public hospital doctors overwhelmingly rejected an offer put forward by the government.
About 58 per cent of doctors voted on an agreement offered by the ACT government earlier this year and 86 per cent voted against this.
The union and the government had about 30 meetings to negotiate a deal.
The pay rate proposed for senior specialists was just over $264,000 a year and was the second-lowest in the country, with only NSW trailing.
The Australian Medical Association ACT showed the salary for top-end specialists was only 65 per cent of what they would make in Victoria.
Pay rates for second-year residents were on par with other jurisdictions, and the proposal pay for interns was broadly similar.
ASMOF members have been undertaking industrial action since September. This has included bans on non-clinical work, including overtime and one-hour stoppages. It has been carried out so patients are not put at risk.
ASMOF ACT branch president Jeffrey Looi said Canberra desperately needed to recruit and retain more specialists, and this could not happen if the pay were lower than that of other jurisdictions.
"Our members have always been concerned about the safety of the Canberra public, and the reason that we took the industrial action is that staff are getting increasingly fatigued due to the inability to retain staff," he said.
"We took this action was so that we could get comparable wages that allow us to retain staff, but more importantly, because Canberra is a small jurisdiction, to recruit people from other states."
Associate Professor Looi said the offer on the table was the lowest wage offer compared to other ACT public servants, and pay had gone backwards when inflation was considered.
He said the decline in senior staff was worrying, pointing to the fact there were fewer senior staff in his sub-specialty than when he started 20 years ago. Associate Professor Looi said earlier career specialists were leaving because they could seek better pay elsewhere.
"This is the worst staffing level I've ever seen," he said.
"There are grave risks that we face for the ability to look after Canberrans because we can't retain enough junior and senior doctors to maintain the stability of services."
Australian Medical Association ACT president Kerrie Aust welcomed the decision to have the Fair Work Commission decide the pay rate.
"But let's not forget what this campaign has been all about: the need to retain and attract hardworking public hospital doctors to the ACT," Dr Aust said.
"All that's gone on, including the industrial action, has taken place against a backdrop of the ACT's need to compete against other Australian states and territories, New Zealand and even other countries for doctors of every type, from first-year interns to the most senior and experienced specialists."
A directions hearing is set for next Wednesday.
