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Britain fails to stop 48 hour week limit

The directive must be implemented by 23 November this year. It stipulates that no one should have to work more than 48 hours a week, except by mutual agreement and provided that there are specific safeguards to prevent abuse.

The various exemptions in the directive will effectively preclude all doctors from having to comply. Doctors in training are excluded, general practitioners are not covered because they are self employed, and consultants come under the exemption for "managing executives or other persons with autonomous decision making powers." Other workers in hospitals are allowed to make special arrangements with their employer if longer hours are worked.

Britain has the highest percentage of full time employees working more than 48 hours a week in the European Union. The British government argued that the directive was illegal because it was adopted as a health and safety issue and therefore subject to qualified majority voting, which Britain cannot block. The government has never accepted that the directive is justified on health and safety grounds.

In its legal challenge the British government also used a review of the scientific evidence by Professor Malcolm Harrington from the Institute of Occupational Health, University of Birmingham, which concluded that there was not enough evidence to stipulate a fixed maximum number of working hours. But Professor Harrington criticised the use of his report in this way and said: "This is unquestionably a health and safety issue. There is no doubt that working long hours is detrimental to health."

Many junior doctors believe that they should be included in the directive, but the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee conceded at its last meeting that a maximum 48 hour working week would be impractical for all doctors (5 October, p 886). Committee chairman, Dr Peter Bennie, said: "Forty eight hours is perfectly deliverable across many European countries, and we are 100% behind the limit for European doctors, but at present this is not possible in Britain because there are simply not enough doctors at junior or consultant level to achieve it." But he believes that the directive will put extra pressure on the government to apply the new deal target--that by 31 December no junior doctor should be working for more than 56 hours.--CAROLINE WHITE, freelance journalist, London

View larger version (106K): [in this window] [in a new window]   Junior doctors' leaders hope to use the directive to put pressure on the government to cut working hours.

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