Non-consultant doctors seek 20% rise

Non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs) are seeking pay increases of 20 per cent as part of the new benchmarking exercise for public sector staff.

In a submission to the benchmarking body, which will report next year, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) also called for a 20 per cent rise in allowances and in funding for continuing medical education.

It also proposed that long service increments be introduced for registrars in hospitals who were in posts for more than five years and who had reached the top of their pay scale.

The IMO also maintained that there was a clear case for rationalising the NCHD pay scale. The IMO contended that salary levels for NCHDs in public hospitals had been "suppressed traditionally on the assumption of significant premium earnings associated with overtime worked".

It maintained that NCHDs currently worked an average week, including overtime, of 77 hours but that the introduction of a statutory maximum working time of 58 hours could see earnings fall by 30 per cent.

It said this projected fall in earnings would be even greater when the current maximum working week was reduced to 56 hours by August 2007 and 48 hours by 2011.

"While the IMO will seek to have compensatory measures agreed in ongoing talks with employers, we feel it would be appropriate to seek a significant increase - of the order of at least 20 per cent - to act as a bridge towards arriving at a fair and equitable salary and level of remuneration for NCHDs," the IMO said.

Figures put forward by the IMO maintained that the average senior house officer working a 77-hour week had a basic annual salary of around €44,000 but in addition received nearly €60,000 in overtime.

It said that an average specialist registrar working a 77-hour week received a basic package of €64,628 and a further €87,935 in overtime.

The IMO predicted that, based on a 55-hour week, the earnings of the senior house officer would fall from €104,000 to €71,800 and those of the specialist registrar from €152,000 to €105,000.

The IMO said non-consultant doctors ranged in grade from interns to senior/specialist registrars.

It said that without exception, NCHDs were temporary employees and that there was no automatic progression to another grade based on time served. Progression to a higher grade was based on open competition.

The IMO argued that the career of an NCHD assumed constant rotation of employment within Ireland and that emigration was "effectively assumed" for those who aspired to eventual appointment as a hospital consultant.

"There remains the very real possibility that a fully trained NCHD will be forced to emigrate or take on long-term locum employment because there are no consultant positions available to them," the submission stated.

The IMO said that, in recent years, almost half of all NCHD posts were not accredited for training purposes - which was "a necessary prerequisite for ultimate appointment as either a GP or a consultant".

It argued that a 20 per cent pay increase as well as the other associated proposals would represent "a fair response" to the current "brain drain" from Irish medicine, the declining relative attractiveness of the medical profession and the need to bring NCHD pay into line with peers in the public sector.

The IMO contended that NCHDs were particularly affected by rising house prices, given their requirement to move location on a regular basis.