The government and trade unions reach agreement

A fragile truce was reached on Tuesday between key ministries and trade unions in the healthcare sector

Bogdan Matei, 09.05.2018, 13:28

After talks between the government and trade unions, the only thing we know for sure is that the strike planned for Friday will no longer be held. Spontaneous protests erupted in April in hospitals around the country. On Monday this week, trade unions also staged a 2-hour warning strike.

The protests were the result of reforms initiated by the government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. They promised that salary increases would be so generous that the 15,700 Romanian doctors who are now working abroad will want to come back. Indeed, doctors salaries have increased spectacularly, from several hundred to several thousand euros. Nurses salaries have also benefited from generous increases.

However, the ministrys decision to cap bonuses to 30% of the basic salary has led to severe drops in the incomes of orderlies, biologists and pharmacists. The healthcare minister Sorina Pintea now says the government will again amend the law on public sector salaries. The changes will only cover the way in which bonuses are granted, the labour minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu has pointed out. She says on-duty time performed by doctors and nurses will no longer be subject to the 30% cap. The positions of midwife and healthcare assistant will be considered equivalent to that of nurses. Specialised hospitals and certain ambulance services will be able to supplement their staffs bonuses in certain situations. The agreement between the government and trade unions also provides that all employees who lost money as a result of the new salary law will be reimbursed. Talks will also resume on the collective employment contract.

Leonard Barascu, the leader of SANITAS, the most influential trade union in the sector, said the agreement has put an end to the labour conflict. Commentators say, however, that this does not heal the most acute problems in the system: old hospitals with precarious equipment and full of bacteria, shortages of sometimes essential medicine, insufficient medical staff and still unmotivated, if not downright hostile to patients, despite the generous pay rise.

Patients perception is relevant in this sense. According to a European Commission report, almost 60% of the Romanians who say they are affected by corruption say this phenomenon is most likely to occur in the public healthcare system. The head of the National Anticoruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi confirms that medical services, hospital funding and staff employment and promotion are some of the areas most affected by corruption. Kovesi also gave a few examples: the going bribe is 1,500 euros for a job as an orderly, 2,500 euros for a nurse and 1,000 to drive the ambulance car. Her examples provide support for the voices who say the problem is not that the system is under-funded, but that too much money is lost because of corruption.

(translated by: Cristina Mateescu)