Working time rejig leaves doctors feeling off-colour

By Peter Chapman

Date: 16/09/04

A LEADING doctors' group has attacked European Commission plans to rejig the controversial working time directive - claiming the move could prevent "on-call" doctors from having an adequate rest between shifts.

Under the current rules, the European Court of Justice said the hours that health workers spend inside hospital rest rooms between call-outs must be deemed as working time - even if they are asleep.

That means staff on standby for 13 hours are entitled to an 11-hour break before they start work again.

Health authorities and governments worry that the ruling would create extra costs and argue that it would be difficult to hire extra doctors to fill in while their staff are at home "recuperating" from their night shifts.

In response, the Commission plans to suggest changes to the law so that time spent resting at home or on-site are treated in the same way.

"At the moment, as soon as you are in the hospital you are clocking up time," explained an aide to Stavros Dimas, employment and social affairs commissioner.

"Now there will be a distinction that many people say the court should have made. It says if you are not actively working you are not working - even if you are on the premises."

However a spokesman for the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors in the UK, said the group would lobby against the change.

"Resting at work is not the same as resting at home. It is completely different if you are compulsorily at work," said the official.

He said the BMA, one of the EU's most influential medical groups, would prefer a new category explicitly dealing with on-call time spent on-site. "There needs to be a third category that is not work - but something else."

Doctors and other health staff are often told to stay on the premises so that they can attend to patients at short notice. But the on-call parts of the EU law cover other nocturnal workers, such as security guards.

The BMA warning follows stinging criticism from the British government over Commission plans to change the right to opt out from the working time regime.

The working time law says workers can opt out of the rules limiting the working week to 48 hours. Currently, employers can ask their staff to work extra hours. The new plan would impose stricter rules before the opt-out could be applied.

Employers would be banned from asking new workers to agree to opt out from the 48-hour rule when they sign their contracts. Officials say this puts too much pressure on staff to accept long hours.

The waiver to the 48-hour rules would have to be agreed in advance with the unions. In companies without worker representation, employers could approach workers individually. But individual agreements would not be valid longer than a year.

The updated law would also limit hours worked to 65 - even where opt-outs were agreed with workers.

A UK government source said: "It is very important for the British economy that workers have the right to flexibility. We want people to have the right to work longer."

Tony Blair's government is expected to welcome changes to the on-call rules.

The British Medical Association has protested against the European Commission's planned to revamp the working time directive.

British Medical Association: Homepage http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/__Home_Public

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