Hours row could see pickets outside hospitals
The dispute focuses on efforts by a growing number of hospitals to enforce roster changes.
The Irish Medical Organisation, which represents NCHDs, says these learning doctors should be rostered from 9am to 5pm, when hospitals are busiest and most learning takes place. Employers argue that the row is more about overtime payments and ensuring NCHDs maintain their lucrative deal.
A growing number of hospitals, including those in Waterford, Tullamore, Wexford, Cavan, Sligo, Kilkenny and Clonmel, are trying to get NCHDs to provide cover at alternative hours without paying bonus and overtime rates to staff.
Employers argue that hospitals are busy around the clock and learning takes place throughout the day and night.
NCHDs are paid a basic salary of between 24,500 and 44,000, depending on experience.
Some are just out of college, others have up to 14 years experience and are in their 40s. A survey shows that they work an average of 77 hours a week. Those who work in paediatrics, anaesthetics and surgery work an average of 84 or 85 hours.
The basic salary covers 39 hours from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. After that, NCHDs are paid time-and-a-quarter for the first 15 hours. All hours after that are paid at time-and-a-half bar Sundays which are paid at double-time.
Work agreements dating back to 1988 say that rostering arrangements must be agreed between NCHDs, consultants and hospital management.
The Labour Court has also recognised that NCHDs should work between 9am and 5pm because they are doctors in training. But already, some hospitals are trying to change this.
Disgruntled doctors in Tullamore took to the picket line yesterday. And more than 150 more plan to walk off the job indefinitely in Waterford tomorrow and will provide only emergency cover.
The Waterford Regional Hospital situation is by far the most serious, with industrial action hitting the hospital's paediatrics department last week. The South Eastern Health Board said yesterday it was not yet in a position to advise patients on their best recourse as it had not yet received confirmation of what type of cover would be provided by NCHD staff.
Doctors in Sligo have also voted in favour of industrial action. But it is not yet clear if or when NCHDs there will take action. And today, 3,500 ballot papers are winging their way to all NCHDs.
The IMO ballot asks the doctors if they support industrial action in the event that their employers refuse to abide by existing agreements.
The ballot is likely to be passed and could provoke widespread industrial action in all hospitals from next month.
Among the busiest training hospitals are St James's, Cork University Hospital, St Vincent's, the Mater and Beaumont. None of these have tried to change rostering agreements with staff. Management in Tralee did try to bring in new work schedules but abandoned the move after an uproar from staff.
Possible roster changes in the University College Hospital in Galway are being monitored by the IMO.
NCHDs form a cohort of staff in most hospitals around the country.
A handful is earning more than 100,000 a year. These are typically those working more than 70 hours a week in the busier hospitals.
Most earn about 60,000, with senior registrars being paid up to 140,000 a year.
The taxpayer footed a 310 million salary bill for NCHDs in the past year. The overtime rates agreed two years ago make these doctors among the best paid in the country earning more than gardaí, prison staff and Health Minister Micheál Martin.
The dispute is now entering a critical phase. Employers such as the South Eastern Health Board say they are introducing the new rosters in an effort to reduce NCHD hours, as required under a new European Working Time directive.
It requires that the weekly working hours for NCHDs should be reduced to an average of 48.
The threatened dispute at Waterford Regional Hospital arises as a direct result of the SEHB increasing the number of NCHDs employed.
This has resulted in the NCHDs' average weekly hours meeting an obligation under the 1997 Agreement, consistent with the EU Directive, the board said.
The IMO tells a different story and therein lies the dispute.
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