Nurses' "white town" in front of Parliament

Content

h3. 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 <acronym title="Ogólnopolskim Związku Zawodowym Pielęgniarek i Położnych">OZZPiP</acronym> 
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":http://cia.bzzz.net/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):_

bq. _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(Ogólnopolskiego Związku Zawodowego Lekarzy) 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":http://miasta.gazeta.pl/torun/1,35576,4453257.html

<br />

h3. 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":http://cia.bzzz.net/poland_s_health_care_workers_strike_new_challenges_and_old_problems

Powered by Free Software, including Apache web server, Ruby programming language, and PostgreSQL database. Samizdat engine is free software; you can distribute/modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or later.