LOW PAY AND LONG HOURS: THE ISSUES

In June, the junior doctors annual conference voted unanimously in favour of balloting junior doctors on industrial action, unless negotiations with the Department of Health successfully resolved the issue of out-of- hours pay. Negotiations are still under way, but on Friday the Junior Doctors Committee will meet to discuss their progress and whether to take action.

Junior doctors are often the cheapest form of labour in hospitals. Out-of-hours and weekend work for most professionals is paid at higher rates, yet the most junior doctors are paid only 50 per cent. For many this is pounds 4.02 an hour.

Under the New Deal agreement (introduced in 1991) no junior doctor should be working on their feet for more than 56 hours or on duty for more than 72 hours a week. Yet the latest figures show one-in-four junior doctors works beyond these limits.

Tired doctors put patients at risk. Long hours often figure in negligence cases.

Long hours put both the mental and physical health of doctors at risk.

The present Government has tried, and failed, to increase junior doctors' hours from 56 to 65, but it has succeeded in persuading European ministers to delay bringing junior doctors within the Working Time Directive (48hr week) for another 13 years.