European Working Time Directive
The European Working Time Regulations were introduced into Northern
Ireland in 1998. These Regulations created measures designed to protect the health and safety of workers
and aim to ‘improve health and safety at work by introducing minimum rules for employees relating to
daily and weekly rest periods, rest breaks, annual leave entitlements, length of working week, and on
night work.’ Some groups of workers were initially excluded from these regulations, including doctors
in training. However, from August 2004, the provisions of the European Working Time Directive (EWTD)
will begin to apply to doctors in training in the UK. These provisions mean that we must ensure doctors
in training can work safely and effectively without excessive workloads that might compromise patient
care.
Requirements of the Working Time Directive
The key aspects of the EWTD as it applies to the hours worked by doctors
in training are:
- a reduction to an overall average weekly working hours of 58 hours by August 2004
- a further interim reduction to a 56-hour week by August 2007
- a further reduction to 48 hours by August 2009 (this could be extended to 2012)
- Within these hours, doctors in training are entitled to rest provisions of
- 11 hours' continuous rest in every 24 hour period
- Minimum 20 minute break when shift exceeds 6 hours
- Minimum 24 hour rest in every 7 days or minimum 48 hour rest in every 14 days
- Minimum 4 weeks' paid annual leave
- Maximum 8 hours' work in 24 if categorised as a night worker.
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pilot projects have been established in England to test solutions to the challenges presented by the
Working Time Directive for doctors in training. These pilots are looking at a range of measures including:
- Working differently in emergency care and admissions
- Alternative night cover arrangements
- Rota planning and rationalisation
- New roles in surgery & critical care
- New roles in obstetrics, gynaecology & neonatal care
- Other professional roles in direct clinical care
Regular
updates are provided on the Department of Health’s Modernisation Agency
website
and via Calling Time - a monthly Bulletin issued by the Modernisation Agency and is available on this
website.
website
and via Calling Time - a monthly Bulletin issued by the Modernisation Agency and is available on this
website.European Court Rulings (SiMAP and Jaegar)
In October 2000 the European Court of Justice ruled on a case brought
by Spanish doctors against their employers -known as the SiMAP case - that, under the terms of the Directive,
all hours spent resident on-call will be considered as work and will count towards the average weekly
working hours. Further to this, in September 2003 their ruling on a case taken by a German doctor required
to remain in hospital premises overnight between two day-shift periods (known as the Jaegar case) was
that a doctor required to be available at the place determined by his employer could not be regarded
as being at rest during the periods of his on-call duty when he is not actually carrying on any professional
activity.
The European Commission have launched a 3-month consultation period
on Working Time, and in particular the "opt-out" issue. These documents and the SiMAP and
Jaegar rulings can be accessed via their website at http://europa.eu.int/comm/index_en.htm.
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