Talks on Increasing Health-care Workers' Salaries to Continue on Monday
Bratislava, August 9 (TASR) – Negotiations on increasing the salaries of health-care workers will continue at the Government Office on Monday (August 15), TASR was told by head of the Medical Trade Union (LOZ) Peter Visolajsky following the talks on Tuesday.
Representatives of doctors and nurses didn’t receive a specific proposal to increase their salaries at Tuesday’s meeting. Visolajsky confirmed that there was an agreement on one of the eight demands of the doctors, namely that the taxation of medical education should be scrapped in the autumn. Visolajsky pointed out that together with Prime Minister Eduard Heger, Finance Minister Igor Matovic (both OLaNO) and Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky (an OLaNO nominee) they discussed all the demands of the medical trade unions.
According to Visolajsky, they weren’t given any specific numbers or proposals regarding the salary hikes. “We’ve been told so far that there are two ways to meet this requirement, but the Finance and Health Ministries as well as the premier asked for time to analyse it,” said Visolajsky, adding that the two variants are in certain financial volumes. “We don’t know the specifics, that will also be presented to us at the next meeting,” he added.
The LOZ head confirmed that the the trade unionists will participate in the next meeting, but according to him, the doctors are still ready to hand in their notices. “Our notices will only be stopped when the government starts improving things in the health-care sector,” he stressed.
The Nurses and Midwives Trade Union held talks at the Government Office for a little longer because, according to its head, Monika Kavecka, the issue of nurses is the most visible. “I can state with full knowledge and conscience that this problem is being addressed. And it’s being dealt with in such a way that salaries are motivating and that we ensure enough personnel,” she said, failing to provide further details. “What isn’t agreed upon isn’t valid, but I hope that it’ll be confirmed in the near future,” she concluded.
“We won’t comment on the progress of the talks, only the results are important to us,” said Prime Minister’s spokeswoman Lubica Janikova following the meeting, confirming that the discussion was constructive and that the next meeting will take place next week.
