School of Law, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
S Afr Med J. 2012 Jun 5;102(8):655-8. doi: 10.7196/samj.5987.
Owing to a chronic shortage of medical staff in South Africa, sleep-deprived medical interns and community service doctors work up to 200 hours of overtime per month under the state's commuted overtime policy. Nurses moonlight in circumvention of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. For trainee doctors, overtime over 80 hours is unpaid, and rendered involuntarily under threat of not qualifying to practise medicine in South Africa. As forced labour, and sleep deprivation amounting to cruel and degrading treatment, it is outlawed in international law. No other professional group in the country is subjected to such levels of exploitation and discrimination by the state. These abuses should be challenged under the Constitution. Solutions include the installation of electronic time-recording in state hospitals, cessation of unpaid overtime, limits on medical intern shifts to a maximum of 16 hours, and an investigation by the Human Rights Commission of South Africa.
由于南非医务人员长期短缺，根据国家的折算超时政策，睡眠不足的实习医生和社区服务医生每月要加班长达 200 小时。护士们违反《就业基本条件法》兼职。对于实习医生来说，超过 80 小时的加班是没有报酬的，而且是在没有资格在南非行医的威胁下被迫加班的。这种超时工作和剥夺睡眠的行为构成了残忍和有辱人格的待遇，根据国际法是违法的。南非没有其他专业群体受到国家如此程度的剥削和歧视。这些滥用职权的行为应该根据宪法提出质疑。解决方案包括在国有医院安装电子考勤系统、停止支付加班费、将实习医生的轮班时间限制在最多 16 小时以内，并由南非人权委员会进行调查。
