Health workers take to the streets
Romanian health workers held protests in Bucharest and around the country, demanding the promised pay rises.
Corina Cristea, 29.12.2021, 14:00
Health workers took to the streets
on Tuesday in Bucharest in a rally coordinated by the Solidaritatea sanitară federation, which has over 25,000
members from the healthcare system. The demonstration was attended by employees
in the healthcare system, from doctors and nurses to economists and auxiliary
staff. Their main demand from the government was to be granted the salaries
promised almost two years ago, given that no pay rise was awarded last year and
only a quarter of the level promised is earmarked for next year. Daniel Bulboacă, the
vice-president of the federation:
The law in force
since 2017 is not being applied. That’s all we ask: for our salary rights to be
granted, nothing more. This year in January we were supposed to be granted a
first pay rise, but that didn’t happen. Administrative staff are getting no
rise in 2022 and auxiliary staff, nursing assistants, orderlies, the cleaning
staff, only get a quarter of what they were promised.
Protesters staged
rallies in front of the main institutions, including the government
headquarters, Parliament and the president’s office. Gabriel Predica, vice-president
of the Solidaritatea sanitară federation told Radio Romania that the pay rise
is not the only problem:
We are dealing, on
the one hand with an unfair system with respect to the salary scheme and, on
the other, with the lack of gratitude for the efforts of healthcare workers. I’m
including everyone working in the system, from the administrative staff to orderlies,
doctors, nurses, absolutely everyone, all of whom have been involved in these
last two years in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Gabriel Predica says
pay rises have kept being postponed ever since 2010, which has created a lot of
frustration and conflicts among the healthcare staff. He also pointed out that
neither the old, nor the new salary law has been fully implemented. (CM)
