Junior doctors may need work hours exemption

Junior doctors in the UK will be limited to a maximum working week of 48 hours from August 2008 under a European Union working-time directive (EWTD), down from 56.

The EWTD is European law seeking to protect the health and safety of workers. It was enacted into UK law in 1998 as the Working Time Regulations. The Working Time Directive limits the number of hours that doctors are allowed to work over an average week. From 1 August 2004 the European Working Time Directive health and safety legislation extended to apply to doctors in training. Doctors in training should be working a 48-hour week from August 2009.

United Kingdom: Department of Health: Managing your organisation: Human resources and training: Workforce capacity: European Working Time Directive http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Managingyourorganisation/Humanresourcesandtraining/Modernisingworkforceplanninghome/Europeanworkingtimedirective/index.htm

BMA: Employment and contracts: Working arrangements: Hours of work: BMA policy on the EWTD and EU proposals to amend the Directive http://www.bma.org.uk/employmentandcontracts/working_arrangements/hours/

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