Transparency & Corruption, Health, Ukraine, Moldova, Estonia, Armenia

The EAKL trade union confederation reports that health sector trade unions have negotiated pay rises of around 10% for health workers, due to be paid from 1 April. There are some variations across occupations with 10.01% for doctors; 10.03% for specialists; 10.07% for clinical psychologists; 10.09% for nurses and health care support specialists; 14.22% for specialty nurses and midwives; 9.89% for emergency technicians; 10.11% for emergency medical technicians 10.11%; and 10.14% for maintenance workers.

The health workers’ union is negotiating with the Ministry of Health, the Ukrainian Federation of Health Employers and the Joint Representative Body of All-Ukrainian Representative Trade Unions on a new five-year agreement to cover the period up to 2026. A draft has been prepared covering some of the main issues including sustainable development of the sector, working conditions and work-life balance; job protection; health care; social protection, cultural needs and guaranteeing the activities of trade unions. The main challenge will be to resolve issues around pay and the union is looking to

The EAKL trade union confederation has called for real wage increases for frontline workers, particularly in the light of all their efforts during the pandemic. Negotiations on health workers’ pay are now continuing through a national conciliator and EAKL is particularly concerned that the pressures on the service need to be addressed and particularly the low levels of pay that is driving workers away from the sector. Meanwhile the confederation reports that negotiations on the salaries of emergency service and police officers have not even started and is concerned that the state budget is not

The HWUU health workers' union met with the Ministry of Health to express its serious concerns about the situation facing health staff. It had five main demands for action in relation to provision of personal protective equipment (PPE); compulsory testing of medical professionals for COVID; remuneration (in case of emergency, overtime, etc.); insurance (to equate the work of workers in emergency conditions to the participants of hostilities); and the arrangements for commuting to work. The union has set up a hotline to support its members who face problems at work in relation to COVID-19.

On 17 October, around 20000 trade union members from both private and public sectors marched through Kyiv city centre and blocked the government quarter. The main demands of the demonstration were for investment in industry for decent jobs, raise the minimum wage to help stop emigration, not to increase utilities prices, for the state budget to allocate the equivalent of 7% of GDP to education and 5% to healthcare, to urgently pay outstanding wages to more than 100,000 workers and to stop state’s takeover of trade union property and respect trade union rights.

The FPU trade union confederation has called a demonstration outside parliament on 6 December with a number of key demands on the government. These include: setting the minimum wage at the level not lower than the real living wage (UAH 4023); setting the basic wage of a worker in the lowest pay grade at the level above the minimum wage; settling all outstanding wage arrears by the end of the year; reducing utilities prices; ensuring the right to affordable and quality health care and preventing any curtailing of existing worker and trade union rights in adopting a new Labour Code.

The Health Workersù Union of Ukraine (HWUU) organised a major protest outside the national parliament on 19 September focusing on pay, healthcare funding and against the commercialisation of the health system. The union called on the government to respond to the labour dispute registered by the union last year and to deal with urgent issues around unpaid wages and failure to properly implement the agreed pay system. The union was also calling for increased funding for the sector and other initiatives to improve health provision. EPSU sent a message of solidarity.