PETALING JAYA: Government nurses are advocating for a reduction in the weekly work hours from 45 to a maximum of 42 hours.
Malayan Nurses Union president Saaidah Athman said the union wants the government, including the Health Ministry and Public Service Department, to cap the working hours for shift healthcare workers at 42 hours a week.
This, she said, is to ensure patients and healthcare workers’ safety, as the risk rate of mistakes happening due to carelessness is at 50% if a nurse works for over 40 hours and 34% if one works non-stop for more than eight hours.
“The shortage of nurses by 8,000 affects services and burdens existing nurses as they have to take on double duties and their night shift rotations come sooner, therefore affecting the nurse’s quality of life,” she said.
“The study by Heather Katherine Scott-Marshall shows that healthcare workers who work more than 40 hours a week would be subjected to occupational stress and occupational fatigue,” she added.
Work-life balance and psychosocial safety elements are other aspects that would be affected if the working hours increase.
The Delegation of Nurses (DON) said the increased hours will lead to a heavier workload.
“We state our strong opposition to the proposal for the 45-hour-a-week shift system, which is expected to have major negative implications,” it said in a statement on Thursday.
It said nurses were in favour of healthcare reforms to improve the quality of services, but any changes must be based on good governance and consultation with all stakeholders.
DON said implementing this change would lead to more overtime claims and increase operating costs for the government.
Furthermore, nurses could face burnout, resulting in poor quality of service and workplace disruptions, it added.
“We are of the view that increasing the workload for nurses without a salary hike that commensurates with the workload would drive more nurses to migrate overseas or to the private sector,” it said.
This would have a negative impact on the Malaysia Nursing Board’s efforts to maximise the hiring of nurses, although the requirement has been lowered from five SPM credits to three.
It also noted that it would be regressive for Malaysia to implement a 45-hour work week when countries such as the United Kingdom (38.5 hours a week), Singapore (between 38 and 42 hours), and Indonesia (40 hours) have fewer working hours.
The Health Ministry’s nursing and human resources division held a town hall session with nurses regarding the 45-hour work week on Jan 20 to explain that the move was to streamline their working hours with the Public Service Remuneration System (SSPA).
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