9 August 2004 - Working Time Regulations Now Apply to Junior Doctors
Regulation 7 of the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2003, which relates to junior doctors, has now come into force from 1 August 2004.
The 2003 Regulations amend the Working Time Regulations 1998 which implement the European Working Time Directive (93/104/EC) into British law.
The 2003 Regulations were amended in order to extend working time measures in full to all non-mobile workers in road, sea, inland waterways and lake transport, to all workers in the railway and offshore sectors, and to all workers in aviation who are not covered by the Civil Aviation (Working Time) Regulations 2004. Junior doctors are now taken into account in these Regulations also.
Doctors in training were already under restriction to no more than 56 hours actual work on average per week since 1 August 2003 as part of their contracts, but the new amendments will ensure junior doctors adhere to weekly working time limits such as:
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58 hours from 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2007
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56 hours from 1 August 2007 to 31 July 2009
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48 hours from 1 August 2009.
It is also not possible to "opt-out" from the average weekly working time limit, only from the rest requirements.
