THE IRISH Medical Organisation (IMO) is to recommend to its non-consultant hospital doctor members that they should accept a Labour Court recommendation on new working hours and rosters in a forthcoming ballot.
The organisation’s nonconsultant hospital doctor committee made the decision after considering the Labour Court recommendation, aimed at facilitating the implementation of the European Working Time Directive, at a meeting last night.
The IMO said that new rosters should take account of patient safety, training for non-consultant doctors and health and safety issues.
Under the terms of the Labour Court recommendation the core working week for non-consultant hospital doctors would run from 8am to 9pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 7pm at weekends. The Labour Court also found that health service management should be able to roster such doctors to work on any five days over a seven-day period from next month.
At present the core week for non-consultant hospital doctors runs from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday with overtime rates applying for work carried out outside of this period.
The new proposals could, if implemented, save the HSE millions in overtime payments.
Meanwhile, it is expected that management at Bus Éireann will today tell unions at the company that it will unilaterally introduce a controversial cost-reduction programme if unions do not return to the negotiating table.
Earlier this week Siptu said it would not be attending a scheduled final round of talks on the cost-saving programme as part of a row over the appointment of about 40 drivers whose probationary period at the company had expired.
Under the cost-reduction plan, about 320 jobs at the company would go and 150 vehicles would be removed from the fleet. About 50 routes face either being scrapped or having frequency reduced as part of the programme, while new work practice changes are also envisaged.
Separately, it is understood that Bus Éireann management is considering a review of the frequency of about 40 other routes if the €25 million in savings sought as part of the plan are not delivered.
In a separate development yesterday, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) is understood to have decided to ask the Government to draw up a paper on where it sees the state of the current talks on a social partnership deal on national recovery.
A plenary discussion on public sector reform – a key element of the overall process – which was scheduled for yesterday was deferred at the request of the Department of Finance.
Unions indicated that they would consider any new Government paper at a meeting of the executive of Ictu to take place next Wednesday.
