Students sue over residency system and training programs

Geoff Davis on Wed, May 09, 12:05PM wrote:

"Perhaps some liability-like things as well. I'm sort of surprised that there have been so few high-profile cases of postdocs suing their PIs - after all, a federal circuit court has ruled that PIs have a fiduciary duty to their postdocs."

Perhaps another good dual degree would be a PhD/JD combination. Then postdocs that are unhappy with their experience can sue their PI without paying for outside council. I am half joking and half serious here.

There is precedence along these lines five years ago when it comes to medical residents and the National Resident Matching Program. The New York Times article below provides good coverage of the issue.

In the article, one can easily see many of the similarities with issues facing postdocs in the sciences: "The suit says the defendants, including seven medical organizations and more than 1,000 private hospitals, have used the program to keep residents' wages low and hours long. Almost all first-year residents make less than $40,000 a year and often work 100-hour weeks."

I guess low-wages are something of an issue with these young folks.

As I recall, but I don't have the link, Senator Ted Kennedy quickly slip an amendment in an unrelated appropriations bill prohibiting medical residences from suing the medical residency program. I do not know where this situation stands today.

Bob

Here is an excerpt of the article:

Medical Students Sue Over Residency System

May 7, 2002

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/07/health/07DOCS.html

By ADAM LIPTAK

Every March, graduating medical school students wait anxiously for Match Day, when a computer tells them where they will spend the next several years as medical residents in teaching hospitals.

A class-action lawsuit to be filed in Washington today challenges the matching program on antitrust grounds. The suit says the defendants, including seven medical organizations and more than 1,000 private hospitals, have used the program to keep residents' wages low and hours long. Almost all first-year residents make less than $40,000 a year and often work 100-hour weeks.

If the suit is successful, the nation's health care system faces an enormous financial liability and the prospect of being forced to change the way that generations of doctors have been trained.

. . . There is no room for negotiations about wages, hours or other terms of employment. As a consequence, the plaintiffs say, the hospitals, which share detailed salary information with each other, can force residents to accept below-market wages for the three to eight years, depending on specialty, of their residencies.

"The match basically controls where you are going to spend the first part of your professional life," said Dr. Paul Jung, one of the plaintiffs, who is now a fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Yet, he said, "you're expressly forbidden from having any kind of agreement about any kind of salary or anything."

. . . See the link above for the entire article.

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