IMO and HSE to enter talks on averting doctors' strike

The Labour Relations Commission (LRC) is to chair talks today aimed at averting a junior doctors' strike later this month.

The commission has invited the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the Health Services Executive (HSE) to talks this afternoon.

Junior doctors are due to go on strike on September 25 in a dispute over rosters which force them to work over 24 hours at a time.

IMO spokesman Eric Young said non-consultant doctors aren't paid enough to justify their workload.

"An intern starts in our health system at the moment at €32k," Mr Young said.

"That would go up to an SPO - which is the most senior NCHD - at 80-odd thousand.

"And ultimately doctors would have trained for 8, 10, 12 years to reach these posts.

"So I'm not sure that there are many graduates, who would go through such extensive training, that would be paid at these rates that doctors are paid at the moment."

The IMO claims that the excessive working hours of junior doctors is causing a huge rise in emigration, estimating that over 50% of them intend to leave the Irish health service within the next number of years.