Sanitas maintains Monday's warning strike after analysing the new pay legislation

The Sanitas Federation will proceed with its previously announced warning strike on Monday, between 9:00 and 11:00, despite union representatives having in the meantime received and reviewed the new draft pay legislation. Sanitas President Iulian Pope argues that the current version represents an improvement over the initial draft, but that a preliminary analysis suggests it still fails to eliminate the risk of pay cuts for healthcare and social care workers. The decision on a potential general strike is to be made next week, depending on how negotiations progress.

According to Pope, union representatives were given access to the full draft, including its annexes and coefficients, though so far they have only had the opportunity to study the sections relating to the healthcare system and social care.

"We've seen the pay legislation. It doesn't appear to be a particularly good version. It is improved, admittedly. We have yet to identify where the extra 4,000,000,000 RON has gone compared to the initial draft. Regardless of what happens today, the Monday warning strike will go ahead. The only discussion we can have next week, depending on how things develop, will be about a general strike. But the warning strike, I want to be clear, will take place on Monday between 9:00 and 11:00. We had a scheduled meeting with PSD representatives, and a meeting with USR is also planned. It coincided with the moment the political parties received the pay legislation, and it gave us the opportunity to see the new draft — I believe among the first to do so. We reviewed the draft pay legislation in its entirety, including the annexes and coefficients. So far, we have only had time to analyse Annex 2, which covers pay in the healthcare and social care sectors," the Sanitas leader stated.

He noted that official consultations with trade union organisations on the draft legislation were due to begin from Saturday.

"At first glance, I don't think we'll manage to avoid income losses"

Iulian Pope went on to say that the changes made to the draft are limited, and that a number of issues previously raised by the unions remain unresolved: "At the level of coefficients, at first glance, the increases are negligible. There are still very significant constraints that will likely prevent us from avoiding income losses. The 20% cap on allowances remains in place. Some percentages have been added for certain types of allowances, but at first glance, I don't think we'll manage to avoid income losses compared to current pay. We were informed that the budgetary impact has increased from 8,000,000,000 to 12,000,000,000 RON, without being told where that money has gone. Now that we have the draft, we'll find out for ourselves."

The union leader stated that Sanitas will continue analysing the draft throughout the weekend and will decide on Monday whether to call for its rejection and whether the conditions for triggering a general strike have been met.

"We'll see whether this barrier is lifted, whether we sit down at the negotiating table and identify solutions to avoid these losses. We have no desire to reach the point of a general strike," Iulian Pope added.