What is the timetable of implementation?
Date
Deadline
August 2004
Interim 58 hour maximum working week. Rest and break
requirements also become legally enforceable from this date.
August 2007
Interim 56 hour maximum working week.
August 2009
Deadline for 48 hour maximum working week. This may
exceptionally be extended by another 3 years at an interim of
52 hours, with 48 hours then coming in 2012.
What are the rest and break requirements?
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a maximum average working week of 48 hours including overtime
a minimum daily consecutive rest period of eleven hours
a minimum rest break of 20 minutes when the working day exceeds six hours
a minimum rest period of 24 hours in each seven day period
a minimum of four weeks paid annual leave
a maximum of eight hours work in any 24 hours for night workers in stressful jobs.
What about training?
We are working hard to ensure that continuing improvements in education and training, including appraisal
and assessment, and especially supervised clinical exposure, occur at the same time as these compulsory
hours reductions.
We are working with the Royal Colleges to avoid automatic increases to total training time, as this is often
already much longer than most European countries. We believe strongly that if training is improved, it will not
be necessary to lengthen total training time.
Why can't we just carry on as usual?
The EWTD is European law that has been included in UK law. We have to take notice of the rules within the
EWTD and we are not allowed to negotiate changes to the '48 hours' limit.
We understand that many UK doctors do not want more limits to their working hours. This law will apply to us
despite that. The position of the law is that the EWTD is to safeguard your health and safety, and thereby
that of your patients. The JDC is not allowed to negotiate an opt out from health and safety law regardless of
the wishes of our members. The EWTD is European and UK law, not a 'BMA or JDC agreement'
What is left to negotiate, then?
The EWTD will introduce limits to the working week that will need changes in the way we work. The most
challenging limits are the guarantee of 11 hours continuous rest each day, and the probable definition of
doctors as night workers in stressful situations, limiting maximum hours working at night to 8 hours in any 24.
However, it is possible to introduce derogations related to the rest criteria (but not the total weekly hours
limit). A derogation is an agreement to introduce flexibility in some of the rest requirements, allowing you, for
example, to take compensatory rest in lieu of the rest you should be getting while working (see Appendix C
for more information on derogations).
The Government can choose not to derogate from the rest and break limits. This happened in the
Netherlands, and Dutch doctors are now limited to maximum 13 hour shifts in any one day. If the
Government do wish to derogate, they are likely to seek the profession's view, and may wish to reach a joint
agreement (called a 'collective agreement') with the JDC. This agreement would have to safeguard doctors'
interests by requiring the provision of compensatory rest. We re-emphasise that we are not allowed to try to
negotiate a collective agreement to opt out of the directive limits on total weekly working hours.
The position on derogations will remain somewhat unclear until we know exactly how the Government
enacts the amending directive into UK law. Some rights may not exist to derogate from by virtue of regulation
21(c)(i) Working Time Regulations 1998. This factor may in fact make our position different from the Dutch
experience. It is important to realise that the EWTD can be implemented slightly differently by each country
affected by it. It is, however, the opinion of the BMA lawyers that the rest provisions of the directive, including
SiMAP, will apply to juniors in the UK.
The CCSC has agreed specific derogations so that, subject to regulation 24 (compensatory rest), regulations
6(1), (2) and (7), 10(1), 11(1) and (2) and 12(1) do not apply. This means that the regulations relating to night
working, daily rest, weekly rest and breaks at work do not apply to consultants. Under Regulation 21, they
will be able to accrue compensatory
rest for hours worked during rest breaks. However, this agreement has not worked well, with few consultants
actually receiving their rest.
The JDC may seek to modify some of the rest and break requirements by such derogations. We will use your
answers in the JDC survey to guide our position in negotiations.
JDC clarification of European Working Time Directive issues for junior doctors and survey of your views .
Can I opt out of the directive?
Individuals have the right to choose to work more than the 48 hours average weekly limit. A decision to
exercise this option must be individual, voluntary and pressure must not be placed on an individual to take
this option.
The JDC has policy supporting the right of individual doctors to choose to work outside the directive.
In order for an opt-out to apply, employers must maintain a record of who has made the agreement and what
terms they have agreed to.
Employers will still need, for New Deal purposes, to monitor the hours worked of individual workers who opt
out. Groups of employees cannot have a 'joint opt-out'. Employers still have to have systems that satisfy the
EWTD - trusts will have to run rotas that satisfy the requirements, even if you opt out.
What is the current JDC policy?
Junior doctors' committee and conference:
Deplored the exclusion of juniors from the original directive. (1993 - 1998)
Deplored the application of the 9 year transition period and demanded that the UK government should make
a clear statement that the extension period would not be used. (2000)
Asked the BMA to actively encourage all consultants to adopt the EWTD. (1999)
Urged the Commission to apply the 48 hours work limit as meaning 'actual hours worked' using the same
definition for work as the New Deal. (1998) (1996) (the Commission and SiMAP did not use the definition we
asked for - and defined all hours spent in the hospital on call as work.)
Supported the individual right to opt out of the EWTD for juniors. (1998)
Stated that JDC does not wish a rigid 48 hour limit on hours of work applied to all junior doctors (ie even
those who wished to opt out). (1996)
Called for detailed derogations to be negotiated at a national level. (1998)
Called on the JDC to inform juniors of the implications of the EWTD. (1998)
Demanded a survey of juniors opinions once they had been informed of the issues involved in such a
directive (1998). Welcomed this survey and called for a sustained campaign to improve training so that the
48 hour limit could be achieved in 7 years. (1999)
Stated that implementation of the EWTD requires:
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fundamental change to the way healthcare is delivered in the UK
massive consultant expansion
innovative and flexible ways of working by consultants so that they can deliver high quality
healthcare and training
substantial financial investment from the Government
improved Postgraduate Medical training to ensure sufficient adequately trained consultants
limitation of medical work to those tasks that require a doctor
expansion of non-medical staff numbers (2001)
Called upon the BMA to produce a report drawing on the experience of other countries to evaluate working
patterns that deliver optimal professional development for juniors, high quality medical care and high quality
training, within the constraints of the EWTD and without extending duration of training (2001)
Invited the Royal Colleges to give their opinions on how best to achieve compliance with the EWTD for
juniors (2001)
What is JDC currently doing about the EWTD?
We have:
Successfully pressured the Government into beginning planning for the EWTD, including setting up pilot
sites that would examine how the EWTD would work. This led to the Department of Health 'Thinking the
Unthinkable' seminar this year, which heard input from many junior doctors from JDC.
Produced a comprehensive resource document to enable trusts and doctors on the ground to plan rotas that
satisfy the New deal and ultimately the EWTD.
Set up a conference in May 2002, involving major stakeholders and European doctors, to discuss the
implementation and implications of the EWTD.
Set up a standing JDC EWTD Working Party to anticipate and discuss developments as they occur.
Commissioned legal advice from within and outside the BMA on many aspects of the directive and its
implementation
Conducted surveys into how members view the EWTD (1998), and how we should address the issues of
derogation.