Unions want shorter working hours for hospital doctors

The vida private health sector union has welcomed the initiative of social minister Rudolf Hundstorfer to introduce restrictions on working time for hospital doctors. At the moment doctors can work up to 72 hours a week and up to 32 hours in a single shift. The minister is calling for a maximum 25-hour shift. According to the chamber of doctors, one in five in the profession are suffering symptoms of burn-out while 50% are at risk. This increases the likelihood of errors and threatens the quality of service. [Read more at > vida (DE)->http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page

SIPTU is calling for higher pay and shorter hours nurses in evidence to the Benchmarking Body. As part of the long-running series of national agreements public sector workers' pay and conditions are compared to similar jobs in the private sector. SIPTU is arguing that nurses should be properly rewarded for their round-the-clock service and that recruitment and retention bonuses should be paid in response to the shortage of nurses. The union also notes that there have been many changes to the health service and to nurses' responsibilities since the last benchmarking study. [Read more at > SIPTU