State may face legal action over junior doctors’ hours

THE case of junior hospital doctors working 36-hour shifts, or more, is expected to be referred to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission.

Court action is on hold while a new working time directive is being thrashed out between EU governments and the European Parliament.

But, following intensive negotiations to reach a compromise on various aspects of the draft legislation, talks finally broke down in the early hours of yesterday.

Proposed new legislation will be ditched.

As a result, changes to working times and rest periods that affect junior hospital doctors in particular will not now come into force.

Ireland has already been warned that the maximum working week for the hospital doctors is 56 hours, and this is set to fall to 48 hours in August.

A commission spokesperson said it was reviewing the situation with a view to proceeding with cases against a number of member states, including Ireland.

The collapse of talks ended five years of work on the controversial legislation and led the Czech presidency to accuse MEPs of playing to their electorate in the upcoming elections.

“MEPs were not willing to accept a deal that would improve the employees’ situation and, at the same time, lead to a more flexible labour market. This is what Europe needs at the time of the economic downturn,” said Czech Deputy Prime Minister Petr Necas, who led the negotiations.

Currently, the agreed working week is 48 hours averaged over four months, but countries can opt out of this for a limited period. At present, 15 countries, including Britain and Germany, use the opt-out.

Under the proposed new legislation, member states had offered to cut the maximum working week to 60-65 hours but that the opt-out would remain indefinitely.

Ireland has not opted out, though there are exceptions for workers, in particular areas where the week can be averaged out over six or 12 months when approved by the Labour Court.