Junior doctors demand 64-hour work cap, end to 36-hour shifts in policy talks with gov't, lawmakers

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Junior doctors demand 64-hour work cap, end to 36-hour shifts in policy talks with gov't, lawmakers

Published: 10 Mar. 2025, 18:08

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Lawmakers and medical professionals pose for a photograph during a policy dialogue held at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 10. [NEWS1]

Junior doctors on Monday urged the government to strictly cap their working hours to 64 hours a week and improve labor protections, accusing the current system of being “exploitative” and “extremely poor.”

During a policy dialogue at the National Assembly between the medical community, the government and lawmakers, Park Dan, head of the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), said that “fundamental structural reform" was needed to "establish a sustainable medical system.”

Park said the country should reduce the maximum weekly working hours from 88 to 64, as in Japan and Europe, and — in the long run — gradually apply the Labor Standards Act, which mandates a 52-hour workweek across various industries, to medical professionals.

KIRA represents junior doctors who undergo training after graduating from medical school with a general doctor’s license. Most junior doctors left their training hospitals and resigned in February of last year to protest against the government’s policy to expand the enrollment quota in medical schools.

Park said the Act on the Improvement of Training Conditions and Status of Medical Residents, enacted in 2015, has insufficiently protected junior doctors from overtime work and mistreatment from professors.

Park pointed out that 36-hour shifts increase the possibility of medical accidents, as sleep-deprived doctors are more likely to make mistakes. During 36-hour shifts, junior doctors begin work at 7 a.m. and finish at 7 p.m. the following day without rest.

Junior doctors typically work over 100 hours weekly, with two or three 36-hour shifts.

“The hourly wage for junior doctors is 11,400 won (nearly $8) when their average monthly salary, 3.98 million won, is calculated per hour,” Park said.

Park called for structural reform of the committee to assess training conditions, adding that the committee misrepresents junior doctors’ voices. Of its 13 seats, medical professors take 10, while only two seats are assigned to junior doctors and one to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Park said the current structure benefits employers and hospitals, not junior doctors.

“As the committee is intended to assess the training environment and ensure the quality of training for junior doctors, half the seats should be occupied by junior doctors,” Park said.

Lawmakers and medical professionals stand during the Pledge of Allegiance at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 10. [YONHAP]

Other junior doctors also recalled unfair labor practices that they faced.

Kim Eun-sik, a representative of junior doctors at Yonsei University’s Severance Hospital, said the hospital “tacitly pushed” pregnant junior doctors to take night shifts and 36-hour shifts, although the Labor Standards Act prohibits pregnant women’s overtime work.

Kim Jun-young, a representative of junior doctors at Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital, said junior doctors become “subordinate” to hospitals and professors as they must publish in an academic journal with professors to earn a board-certified medical specialty license.

Senior doctors agreed on the need to improve labor conditions for junior doctors.

Kim Taek-woo, head of the Korean Medical Association, said the committee evaluating the training environment for junior doctors should dedicate half its seats to junior doctors for “impartial assessment.”

Prof. Key Dong-hune, an emergency medicine specialist at Chung-Ang University Hospital, asked the government to expand the Labor Standards Act to junior doctors if the current act is deemed insufficient.

Park Dan, head of the Korean Intern Resident Association, center, shakes hands with National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 10. [NEWS1]

While the dialogue was intended to discuss means to improve labor conditions for junior doctors, politicians seemingly took the occasion as a chance to solve an impasse between the medical community and the government.

Last Friday, Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said the government would conditionally set the medical school enrollment quota for 2026 at 3,058 seats — the same size as before the admission hike — if boycotting students return to campuses this month.

During the policy dialogue, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik underlined the importance of having a series of talks "to resolve the standoff wisely and to restore trust between the government and the medical community by incorporating various stakeholders’ perspectives."

Woo said that the medical community and the government bear a mutual “obligation to make an effort to rebuild trust” between them as medical issues are directly linked to public health and lives. The speaker vowed that the parliament would do its best to connect the government, medical sphere and people.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]