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ARTICLE · 09 JULY 2004

The Doctor Is on Call—But Is he Really Working?

Jones Day
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A doctor often spends time being on call. Does this time spent being on call count towards his hours of work? This is an issue that hospitals and doctors have grappled with over the years.

GermanyEmployment and HR
Oliver Heeder
Oliver Heeder
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A doctor often spends time being on call. Does this time spent being on call count towards his hours of work? This is an issue that hospitals and doctors have grappled with over the years. A recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision brought some clarity to the matter, but it seems clear that further discussion is looming.

In Germany, the time that a doctor spends being on call typically does not count towards his hours of work unless he was actually working during this period. The ECJ had a different view as can be seen from the recent Simap decision. The ECJ held that any time a person is required to be at work as part of his on-call obligations, he is held to be "working." A number of courts have followed this holding and have credited doctors for work performed, even though the doctors may not actually have been working while on call.

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