(30 January 2015)
Prishtinë/Brussels
On 29 January 2015 EPSU sent a letter of solidarity to the Trade Union Health Federation of Kosovo (FSSHK) fully supporting the strike action on 30 January 2015 in all the health institutions, when also patients showed their comprehension for this step taken. Negotiations with the Prime Minister had failed.
EPSU also had sent letters to the President and the Prime Minister of Kosovo calling upon them to take action to address the problems identified by FSSHK and .
In the letter of support to FSSHK EPSU underlined that it is completely unacceptable that the government has failed to put into effect both the General Collective Agreement adopted in March 2014 and the law on wages adopted in 2010. We also support your call for immediate dialogue with the government over a pay increase for your members.
We believe that health workers across Europe, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, are doing their best to provide high quality services in the face of cuts to jobs and funding. Their contribution needs to be recognised. They need long overdue increases in pay that will begin to reverse, or at least, slow the migration of nurses, doctors and other staff.
EPSU would argue that it is a grave mistake for any country to believe it can make short-term savings on healthcare without creating longer term problems for its workforce, and thereby putting a greater burden on health services in the future.
In recent months we have seen many public service workers forced to take industrial action or to demonstrate over their right to negotiate and to secure their collective bargaining demands. In the UK, several EPSU affiliates have joined with other unions in coordinated action and they have secured an increased offer from the health employers. We sent our support to them and do the same to our colleagues in Kosovo and hope that your action will also lead the government to get back around the negotiating table. We are from different countries and share the same fight.
The strike of FSSHK on 30 January 2015 seemed to have at least some effects as can be concluded from articles in local media. In a time when every day 500 people are leaving Kosovo for a better future abroad, the results of a FSSHK survey in 2014 with health workers and medical students becomes a top story in the newspapers and social media. Two examples (in Albanian) are given below:
- RTK Live
- Gazeta Express
In June 2014, at the time of the Regional Conference on migration of health workers the results of the survey - with 400 doctors having left Kosovo in a short period - were not taken seriously by the government that did not take any significant action to stop the “brain drain”.
- Log in to post comments
