The coming week (early September 2007)

Toruń nurses will picket the Sejm (national parliament in Warsaw) while the members of Parliament are working on a bill guaranteeing them a rise, stating, “We’re still a long way from lifting the strike”.

The bill about raising the salaries of health workers is a result of the protests carried out by nurses from around Poland in June. They formed what was called a “white town” around the Prime Minister’s Office in Warsaw for four weeks, made of a few dozen tents. Among them were nurses from Toruń hospitals.

The government initially rejected the raise, but in the end gave in and next week a bill which guarantees higher salaries for nurses, doctors and other medical workers will go through its first reading in the Sejm. That doesn’t mean that the nurses have laid down their arms. In June about 600 women from Toruń went to the protest. Workers from the Ogólnopolskim Związku Zawodowym Pielęgniarek i Położnych (OZZPiP, all-Poland Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives) and Solidarity took shifts together with their leaders. “We’re continuing in strike mode and there is still a long way before closing the issue, even if next week there’ll be a vote in the Sejm”, said Ewa Jędzura, leader of the OZZPiP in the Regional Hospital Complex. “Of course, it will be a big step forward, because then we’ll certainly get more money. But for the issue of how to divide it up, we’ll have to come to an understanding with the bosses.”

The nurses demanded raising the basic wage to 3000 złoty (750 euro)/month before tax (right now in Toruń the average is 1400 złoty).

Are these two figures correct? The report Poland’s Health Care Workers’ Strike: new challenges and old problems gives “all too often” a much lower figure of the present salaries (but does not specifically cover Toruń):

Salaries for doctors and nurses are notoriously low. There are no standard salaries, and what one earns often depends on numerous factors, but all too often, health care workers earn about half of the national average wage, often around 250-300 euros a month. Some workers get by only because they work extra shifts but in many cases, this overtime is not voluntary; the health care system is the victim of a brain drain with many of Poland’s professionals having gone abroad in search of a better living. In many hospitals, people have to work more and more – even up to 80 hours a week – just to keep the hospital operating.

Right now they’re preparing their next “white town”, this time under the Sejm. The nurses are watching out that the members of parliament will legislate the raise. They’re doing this by shifts: in front of the Lower House of Parliament, they’re going by 3-4 10-person delegations from individual regions. “Our ‘value’ is especially during the time that the bill is being read”, said Jędzura.

The protest wave and the strikes in the health services started from actions by the Ogólnopolskiego Związku Zawodowego Lekarzy (Doctors’ all-Poland Trade Union). In May, medics from hundreds of hospitals from around Poland joined in. Doctors from Toruń hospitals are mostly hired on non-permanent contracts, which prevents them from getting into collective disputes with their bosses. They escaped, however, using other forms of pressure – using their holiday leave, so that their institutions had to function at a minimal level. They only took patients whose health and life was in danger, they didn’t carry out planned operations. The OZZL demands that generalists should make 5000 złoty (1250 euro) /month before tax, and specialists 7500 złoty (1875 euro) /month before tax.

• main source: Natalia Waloch, 2007-09-02, Gazeta Wyborcza Toruń

In-depth analysis – Poland’s Health Care Workers’ Strike: new challenges and old problems

Poland’s Health Care Workers’ Strike: new challenges and old problems