Junior doctors will lose key labour protection rights from the New Year following a government decision to exempt postgraduate deaneries from employment agency legislation.
This means they will be deprived of basic employment rights enjoyed by other workers, claims the campaign group Remedy UK and the BMA, who have fiercely opposed the change.
Remedy’s head of policy, Dr Richard Marks, said the decision enables deaneries to continue using poor employment practices when employing doctors.
These include giving doctors only 48 hours to accept a position creating a dilemma for them if the job is not their first choice. The candidate must then either play it safe and accept a ’second choice’ placement, or reject the offer and gamble on receiving a preferable one.
Deaneries are also frequently criticised for failing to supply job applicants with key information - such as details of salaries and expenses and where they will be required to work - until after the have started their placements.
Marks said: “There are some really outrageous things that deaneries do to junior docs which have become so established in medical culture that we just accept it en masse.”
Remedy warned that the government’s decision will open a loophole that will be able to be exploited by other organisations that recruit junior doctors, such as private locum agencies. He argued that they too will also see themselves as exempt from the legislation.
“We believe the status of deaneries in employment law terms is now very unclear,” said Marks. Remedy is currently investigating whether European employment legislation, which has a broader remit, could apply to deaneries.
The Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) outlined the government’s position in its response to a review of the 2003 regulations governing the conduct of employment agencies.
Deaneries were originally exempt from the Employment Agencies Act 1973 but following an NHS reorganisation in 2006 were inadvertently brought within its scope. BIS describes this as an “oversight”.
The government argues that failure to exempt deaneries from employment agency legislation would “seriously hinder the recruitment and training arrangements for junior doctors with a subsequent impact on both costs and staffing for the NHS”. The changes are to come into force in early 2010.
To address the BMA’s concerns, BIS has proposed establishing a code of conduct to govern future recruitment and training arrangements for junior doctors.
But Datta says the JDC is concerned about how much teeth the code will have and whether it will be enforceable.
“We will be pushing for it to have the same remit as the original legislation. This is a huge issue that is close to junior doctors’ hearts and uniquely only affects juniors.
“All we are asking for junior doctors to be treated the same way as any other workers,” she said.
The JDC is asking trainees to let them know which deaneries are not treating them fairly so that they can put pressure on them to improve standards.
Tags: Deaneries, Employment rights
