Maxi compensation to doctor for work-related stress injury

For hospital doctors' stress-related damages, a maxi compensation arrives. The ruling is from the Court of Appeal of Naples, which sentenced ASL Napoli 3 Sud to pay compensation for the damages suffered by a hospital doctor for having exposed him to excessive work periods, without guaranteeing him the minimum daily rest and adequate night rest, as required by European standards.

The case concerns a Neapolitan doctor who started working in the orthopaedics and traumatology department of the Maresca hospital in Torre del Greco, ASL Napoli 3 Sud, in 2008. The hospital's situation, characterised by severe staff shortages, exposed him to increasingly pressing demands from the management, so that the working hours, for orthopaedist Paolo Mennella, working in the emergency room, gradually became unbearable. In other words, for fifteen years, from 2008 to 2016, the doctor found himself working far longer than his contractual working hours, ending up not being able to take the minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours, and also having to work at night for more than 8 hours for periods of 24 continuous hours within a week, going well beyond the 48-hour working week.

The problem reported by the plaintiff doctor was not related to pay. Despite receiving overtime for this reason, the Naples 3 South doctor developed severe stress that undermined his physical and mental health.

These objections were recognised as valid by the Court of Appeal of Naples, which, following the appeal filed by the Benevento lawyers Giovanni Romano and Egidio Lizza, awarded him a maxi compensation for damages due to stress or 'psychophysical wear and tear' - quantified by the judges, in the case examined, at 100 thousand euro. A jurisprudential precedent that certainly opens the way for other appeals.

Workers' rights with regard to working time are protected by European regulation number 88 of 2003. which also leaves room for a possible exception for managers. An exception that Italy, after having transposed the legislation in respect of all workers, ends up extending the derogation to all doctors after the status of executives is recognised in collective bargaining. However, the European Commission refers Italy to the European Court of Justice . It was only in 2015 that Italy, in order to avoid condemnation, complied with the European legislation, transposing the rules on rest for workers. Thus, in 2014, Law 161 was approved, repealing the rule that made the treatment of the medical manager safe. 'Even the Constitution _ explain Sanniti lawyers Egidio Lizza and Giovanni Romano, who brought the legal action _ in Article 36, protects the right to respect working hours. From this it follows that the psychophysical wear and tear resulting from the non-use of rest, must be compensated. Rest is a legal asset to be protected. It cannot be the individual doctor, therefore, who solves the problem of hospitals with staff shortages'.