The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has sent a delegation to lobby the European Parliament today, as it begins to debate a shorter working week for junior hospital doctors. Several EU medical unions are sending representatives to seek to persuade the parliament to use its powers to amend the Working Time Directive.
Mr Fintan Hourihan, the IMO director of industrial relations, was optimistic yesterday that the parliament would decide to include doctors.
The parliament is discussing the issue today and voting in plenary session tomorrow. Mr Hourihan said: "This debate and the vote should herald a decisive step forward in the long-overdue campaign to have safer and shorter working hours for non-consultant hospital doctors regulated by law.
"The basic premise of the IMO strategy on working hours is that we are seeking to achieve immediate and meaningful improvements in practices and procedures as they apply to working hours for NCHDs, and hopefully to have the 48-hour week enacted here in Ireland ahead of whatever time-frame is decided on by Brussels."
A special delegate conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions tomorrow will debate whether to seek a successor to Partnership 2000. The IMO delegates will call for any new agreement to limit the hours of junior doctors to 48.
The Social Affairs Committee of the European Parliament wants to phase in a 48-hour week for NCHDs over four years, instead of the 13 years adopted by the Council of Ministers. The UK and Ireland have been the strongest opponents.