THE TRADE UNION representing Ireland’s doctors has said the Government is seeking an extra year to fall into line with EU rules on working hours – and end the practice where junior doctors can work shifts of up to 80 hours.
The Irish Medical Organisation, which is currently attending talks at the Labour Relations Commission on a possible replacement for the Croke Park 2 deal, says the Government now wants to bring Ireland in line with the rules by the end of 2014.
Earlier this year, health minister James Reilly had said it was a high HSE priority to bring the rules into place by the end of 2013 – while arguing that consultant doctors would have to take pay cuts in order to allow the recruitment of new junior doctors to fill the gap.
Now, however, the IMO says it expects any revised deals on public sector pay to include a clause under which the Government would sign up to the rules by the end of 2014 – meaning it would have another 18 months to implement the directive.
The directive – which has existed in various forms since 1993, but was most recently updated in 2008 – limits an employee’s working week to a maximum of 48 hours.
The directive has yet to be imposed in Ireland, however, where non-consultant (or ‘junior’) hospital doctors regularly work up to twice as many hours per week, due to staff shortages.
Earlier this year TheJournal.ie revealed that some junior doctors were still being asked to work shifts of up to 36 hours – and regularly being rostered for 32 hours in succession.
The IMO said its talks had also reached an agreement to transfer responsibility for some tasks, such as phlebotomy, to be transferred to nurses as a way of increasing efficiency and reducing pay.
“It is important to state that no agreement has yet been reached on many of the critical issues,” it said. “However progress has been made on some important matters.”
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