BRATISLAVA, November 11, (WEBNOVINY) — Head of the Medical Trade Unions Association (LOZ) Marian Kollar objects to statements by Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik (KDH) that the unionists’ demand for higher pay for doctors would take Slovakia on the Greek path. As he told a press conference on Friday, doctors feel offended by the words. “He considers the Greek path that doctors in Slovakia want to earn more than a wage of a student working part-time,” Kollar said.
According to Kollar, the Health Ministry is misleading the public when he says that doctors demand a monthly salary of EUR 4,000. “If he guarantees observation of the Labor Code, the wage of a top doctor-specialist would be just EUR 2,500,” said the unionists’ head. The average hourly rate of a doctor represents according to unions EUR 4.70. This is less than a EUR 5-6 hourly wage of a hostess, they claim. The trade union demands that an hourly wage of a starting doctor is EUR 7. The unionists say that after 2013, doctors in Slovakia will have the lowest wages in comparison to doctors in neighboring countries.
The LOZ head claims that not a single of the four demands of the doctors has been fulfilled. They consider the halted transformation of hospitals to be just a temporary solution, achieved thanks to President Ivan Gasparovic. “Unless the law on transformation of hospitals into joint-stock companies is scrapped, we cannot talk about fulfillment of this doctors’ demand,” Kollar stressed. According to him, the problem will again be on the table after the early parliamentary elections.
According to the Medical Trade Unions Association (LOZ) 2,411 doctors have filed resignation notices in 34 hospitals all over Slovakia. Uhliarik says that 320 protesters have already taken back their notices. Some 7,500 doctors work in the country’s hospitals. The Medical Trade Unions Association has four demands on the government: to observe the Labor Code, change the system of health care funding, stop transformation of hospitals to joint-stock companies, and increase wages of health care employees. The doctors perceive all their requirements as a complex and demand fulfillment of them all. President Ivan Gasparovic and Prime Minister Iveta Radicova confirmed on November 7 that the transformation process would be put on ice.
SITA