[The employment schedule act from the viewpoint of the ordinary surgeon]

In Germany, the law of labor time was instituted in hospitals on January 1st, 1996 to regulate working hours, times of rest, breaks, and Sunday and holiday work. Problems in the realization of this law arise in daily practice, especially with regard to maximum working hours and post on-call times of rest. The compliance with the law would necessitate an enormous increase in new jobs for physicians, which is associated with an unfinanceable rise in costs. Solutions are either a reduction in performance or the omission to document the productivity. Therefore, surgeons in salaried employment in German hospitals constantly face the conflict of legality and legitimacy.