Unions of interns in medicine and pharmacy have sued the thirty university hospital centers (CHU) in France to enforce the legal ceiling of forty-eight hours of work per week, they announced Thursday 1is december.
The National Intersyndicale of Interns (ISNI), the Autonomous National Intersyndicale Representative of General Medicine Interns (Isnar-IMG) and the National Federation of Pharmacy and Medical Biology Interns Unions (FNSIP-BM) thus intend to apply a decision of the Council of State. On June 22, the high administrative court had ordered public hospitals to equip themselves with a “reliable, objective and accessible device for counting” the working time of their doctors and interns. Based on this decision, “We issued an ultimatum to all university hospitals in July, giving them a chance to implement concrete responses to this problem”write the three unions in a joint press release.
“Noting that no serious progress had seen the light of day, we decided this Monday, November 28 to attack (thirty) CHU in court so that the labor rights of interns are finally respected”, they continue. The summonses were filed in the administrative courts.
According to a July 2021 survey cited by the unions, 70% of interns say they exceed forty-eight hours per week, and half fifty-eight hours. “This organized excess of working time has serious consequences on our mental health”, insist these organizations. They recall that in 2021, a union survey showed that “75% of medical students presented with anxiety symptoms, 67% with burnout symptoms, 39% with depressive symptoms and 19% with suicidal thoughts”. “By refusing to take the excess of our working hours seriously, the CHUs perpetuate these conditions”believe the three unions, denouncing “the cynicism of the situation”which serves to “compensate for the lack of resources of the public hospital”.
The interns claim to assure, “at a derisory salary of 5.42 euros per hour actually worked”and “secretarial work, stretcher-carrying, operating aid”… As many employees as “the CHU no longer has to employ”they recall. “Exceeding working time is not for our training but for our exploitation”they also accuse.