Legal Intermediation: A Processual Approach to Law and Economic Activity by Austin Sarat

Author:Austin Sarat [Sarat, Austin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History & Theory, Economics, Labor & Employment, Political Science, Business & Economics, Jurisprudence, Law, General, Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice
ISBN: 9781838678616
Google: QJO0DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Published: 2019-10-22T10:38:18+00:00

A Passive Health Ministry and State: Between Justification and Excuse of Illegal Hospital Practices

In spring 2014, facing the insistence of the national unions sitting on the national Committee for Health, Safety and Working Conditions of the Higher Council of the public hospital unit about the growth of 12-hour schedules inside hospitals, the Health Ministry set up a working group to investigate the issue of 12-hour shifts patterns. While the issue gained a public and political attention, thanks to the Ministry’s decision, it is nevertheless difficult to see it as a public problem in the traditional sense of public policy analysis (Felstiner, Abel, & Sarat, 1980–1981). Indeed, the way the Ministry chose to approach and deal with the issue seems more like an attempt to defuse conflict with trade unions than any real political desire to offer solutions. For the authorities, the chief aim of this working group was to “document the organization of the 12-hour work schedule,” using existing studies in ergonomics, occupational medicine, chronobiology, sociology, and hospitals’ experiences in order to “move towards strengthening, monitoring and observation of staff, and raising hospitals’ awareness about best practices, both in terms of staff monitoring and social dialogue,” as explains the director of the Department of Social Relations and Social Policy at the Ministry. For their part, the unions rejected the idea of a “best practice guide” and instead asked the Ministry to amend the law to better regulate hospital practices. This is summarized as follows by a nationally elected representative I interviewed from the Force Ouvrière trade union (a minority union, but which played a role in negotiations):

The law provided for the 12-hour working time within a derogation framework. When we negotiated the text on the 35-hour week in 2002, the problem of the 12-hour shift was raised, in the sense that – and also for extraordinary reasons, i.e. that cannot not be foreseen – staff were required to stay at work in order to guarantee continuity of public services. They could work for up to 12 hours. In other words, between the 7 or 8 hours a day [which was the standard working time] and the 12-hour shift, hospital administrations had time to turn the situation around and guarantee the replacement of people who had to increase the length of their shift. So there was that aspect of the 12-hour shift which was a derogation of the standard working time, and that hasn’t changed. Management, solely for financial reasons, by watching and observing, realized that 12-hour shifts saved them between 4% and 6% of their budget for the staff involved. In the short term, I mean. Without taking into account the possible absenteeism it could cause. So they looked at it and said, ‘That’s a good solution to the problems of budgetary discipline we’re encountering: being able to reduce the payroll. So that was the management’s sole interest. The regulatory side for us was unavoidable. It had to remain a derogation.

In addition to the regulatory aspect, the unions also wanted

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.