Health union demands talks with government

The Sanitas health union has been continuing talks with the Ministry of Health over the pay legislation covering the health system. The union argues that the legislation effectively discriminates against certain occupations including pharmacists, biologists, psychologists, physiotherapists, medical registrars, and nurses. However, after the last meeting made no progress the union is now demanding to meet the prime minister to secure a commitment to act to resolve the issue and warns that it will mobilise its 100000 members if no progress is made.

National talks between trade unions and the government over how to respond to the crisis will resume following a letter to the unions from the prime minister indicating a willingness to discuss a number of key issues. The trade unions have set out a 10-point recovery plan that includes negotiations over public sector jobs and the 7.5% “pensions levy” that has been imposed on workers across the public sector. The government says that it will discuss these matters although has indicated that it wants to see greater flexibility in the delivery of public services. [Read more at > SIPTU (EN)->http

The eight union organizations in the public sector (CGT, CFDT, FO, CFTC, UNSA, FSU, Solidaires and CGC) twice walked out of meeting with the government at the end of June. On 25 June they ended the meeting when the government failed to make any response to their demands that action was needed to address the 9% loss of purchasing power since 2000. On 30 June they walked out demanding that the government open proper negotiations after being told that the 2010 pay increase would be 0.5% as set unilaterally by the government in 2008, followed by a pay freeze for 2011-2013. [Read more at > CGT