SANITAS: The Pay Law Has No Favourable Scenario for Healthcare Employees

The SANITAS Federation states that the current draft of the Pay Act contains no favourable scenarios for healthcare workers. This conclusion was reached following an eight-hour working meeting held at the Ministry of Health.

The discussions were attended by World Bank specialists, experts from the Ministry of Labour, representatives of the Ministry of Health, as well as delegates from the other representative trade union federation in the medical sector. According to SANITAS, the union agreed to take part in this review in order to consider all possible options for implementing the legislation.

Over 40% of employees receiving compensatory payments

According to the federation, even in the most optimistic scenarios examined, more than 40% of healthcare workers – particularly doctors and nurses working in high-dependency wards – would end up being paid through compensatory sums. SANITAS states that this would effectively amount to a reduction in income for these categories of staff.

SANITAS withdraws its support for the draft legislation

Union representatives note that all participants at the meeting acknowledged, during the discussions, that the current form of the draft legislation would result in income losses for employees. In this context, the SANITAS Federation declares that it can no longer support the current version of the bill.

General strike in hospitals

As a form of protest against the draft Pay Act, the SANITAS Federation launched a general strike in hospitals across the country on Tuesday. According to the federation, emergency services and complex medical cases continue to be attended to throughout the period of industrial action.