A threatened national strike by junior doctors was deferred yesterday pending further talks with hospital managements over new rosters.The non-consultant hospital doctors' committee of the Irish Medical Organisation decided to delay the action at a "heated" meeting.
By Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent
IMO members voted in August by a margin of 97 per cent in favour of industrial action. Since then six weeks of talks with the Health Service Employers' Agency at the Labour Relations Commission failed to bring the sides any closer together.
Dr John MacFarlane, chairman of the junior doctors' committee, said a number of members had pressed yesterday for strike action to go ahead, claiming doctors had been "treated appallingly" by the employers' agency. While the meeting had been heated at times, it was decided to defer action because the HSEA had suspended the introduction of new rosters. If any hospitals attempted to introduce them individually, industrial action would take place locally.
The row centres on new rosters which managements say are designed to reduce doctors' working hours in compliance with EU law. The rosters, introduced at some hospitals during the summer, require junior doctors to work some hours outside of nine-to-five as part of their working week.
The IMO says doctors would lose essential training time, as training is provided when hospital consultants are present.
On average, junior doctors work 77 hours a week and earn €61,000 in overtime on top of a basic annual salary of €37,500.
