The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rafila, stated on Wednesday that he does not believe that there will be a strike in health as it happens in the education system and assured that the salary discrepancies between the staff categories will be resolved, “but not all now”.
“We will have a new wage law. And this is something that was discussed yesterday, the elimination of some discrepancies that exist in the current wage law that makes, for example, a medical assistant have incomes that bring him very close to other categories that obviously have much smaller responsibilities in the medical act. (…) I don’t think there will be a strike in health, we don’t want something like that. (…) In the new salary law there will be a resettlement to bring the nurses first into their position. There will be a wage claim that will be met. It will eliminate a certain discrepancy that exists between those in the auxiliary staff who have reached the famous Annex 2 and who have reached the maximum salary , and certain categories that have not yet received these increases. This discrepancy will be realized in the next period,” said the minister, according to Agerpres.
He said that he had discussions both with the representatives of the Sanitas Federation and with those of the Sanitary Solidarity.
“We agreed on most points. (…) We have positive answers. Starting with the filling of positions in the health system, continuing with the signing of the collective labor agreement, with the vacation vouchers that could be paid from other sources, including we are thinking to see how we can eliminate certain inequities in granting some increments. The problems cannot all be solved now. The colleagues from the unions understood. The opening at the Ministry of Health was permanent. We have an extremely good collaborative relationship. (.. .) It is everyone’s right to protest, they have many demands which are justified, but which cannot be solved all at once”, Rafila claimed.
Unionists from Sanitas, the largest union of health workers, picketed the Ministry of Health last week. The protest calendar, as originally announced, included a warning strike on June 1 and a general strike on June 8. A general strike after July 1 had also announced the second union in Health, the Health Federation.
However, after the discussions with Marcel Ciolacu, the leader of the Sanitas Federation, Leonard Bărăscu, stated that it is not known whether the announced protest calendar will be respected.
Editor : I.C
