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The Citizen reports that the SA National Defence Union (Sandu) plans to take the defence department to court over a unilateral decision to halve the limit of weekly overtime hours.
Military doctors are apparently up in arms about the decision, primarily because it would put patients’ lives at risk after hours and could lead to doctors working unpaid overtime to save lives. Sandu’s Pikkie Greeff said the union was consulting its lawyers and the affected staff on its plan to take legal action against the department for “unilaterally and unlawfully changing the service conditions of medical staff and endangering the lives of military patients”. According to Greeff, there had been no consultation process on this issue, nor was there any clarity on what would be done for patients during the hours that doctors were no longer allowed to cover. He asked: “How is it going to work if they are cutting overtime hours and yet hospitals are severely understaffed? Are they going to expect doctors to work for free?” A memo from the SA Military Health Service was sent to medical staff last week, stating that no specialist, dentist or medical officer would be allowed to exceed eight hours overtime a week. The limit had previously been 16 hours a week. The service employs about 400 medical doctors through the department of health and has a total work force of about 10,000.
- Read the full original of Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni’s report on this story at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page