BRATISLAVA, January 25, (WEBNOVINY) — Medical trade unionists demand from Speaker of Parliament Pavol Hrusovsky (KDH) to persuade the government to withdraw its draft amendment to the law on health care providers from the parliamentary agenda. If approved, the amendment would give the right to the government to end a strike of health care workers in case that it threatens citizens‘ lives and health. The amendment is on the agenda of the upcoming parliamentary session at the end of January while MPs should discuss it in the first reading.
The Medical Trade Unions Association (LOZ) insists that the amendment criminalizes doctors and perceives it as an act of political revenge on them. Moreover, the trade unionists do not like about the draft amendment that it was approved without a preceding interdepartmental review and without discussing it first on the ground of the Cabinet’s Legislative Council. It considers this an act of revenge on all health care workers. Doctors argue that the amendment is an inappropriate intervention in health care workers‘ right to perform their profession. They mainly protest against multiple sanctions for a single violation of the law. They found it unjust as well that a doctor who ignores a strike ban can be banned from executing his profession for ten years.
The Cabinet approved the draft amendment in mid-December in reaction to the crisis in Slovak state-run hospitals when some 1,300 doctors went on strike and the hospitals were unable to secure even urgent health care. The government and trade unionists were unable to agree on four doctors‘ demands and thus a state of emergency was declared in thirteen districts. However, many doctors did not come to work even then and took a sick leave instead. Ultimately, the trade unions ended the strike after the government fulfilled all of their demands.
SITA