Doctors in the hospital. Photo: Arne9001 | Dreamstime.com
Guards performed by doctors, which are required by contract, could be officially recognized as length of service. The provision appears in a bill submitted to Parliament by an AUR senator.
The legislative initiative “proposes the alignment of the status of medical personnel with that of other employees in the emergency and defense services, for which shift work and permanence are taken into account in the contribution period”, says senator Cătălin Silegeanu, the initiator of the project.
The project provides that the on-call activity be integrated into seniority, “taking into account the continuous nature of the activity and the crucial role in the functioning of the health system. The initiative aims at the legal recognition of medical work, without changing the overtime work regime or generating additional budgetary costs.”
“The project does not involve additional expenses for the state budget, as the guards are already remunerated; the effect consists exclusively in their recognition as seniority, with consequences on career stability and pension rights,” the statement of reasons states.
Currently, doctors are contractually obligated to perform on-call to ensure the continuity of the medical act, including during nights, weekends and public holidays.
“Few people know that the nights lost by doctors are not recognized as length of service and are not taken into account, for years, when determining the pension. Although they are mandatory, regulated by contract and paid, the guards are legally treated as a marginal activity in the professional career of doctors. It is a clear legislative anomaly, which cannot be justified by any logic of fairness”, says senator Cătălin Silegeanu.
The initiative is to be debated, first, in the specialized committees of the Parliament.
