The National Union of Public Health Practitioners plans to halt all work until the government meets its demands.
By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers
A plan by Algerian public health care workers to escalate more than a month of rolling three-day strikes into an "open-ended" work stoppage on Monday (December 21st) is raising concerns over the timing of their labor action.
Judging from the hard work on display at the Sidi M'hammed Health Center in central Algiers, some doctors seem to be ignoring directives from the National Union of Public Health Practitioners (SNPSP).
One centre employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Magharebia last week that doctors had to be "careful" because the strike had lasted too long. "It's a huge responsibility; the health sector is very sensitive," he said. "We still have to act in accordance with our professional conscience."
He also said doctors fear receiving smaller paychecks, because the Health Ministry has been "raiding" strikers' salaries. "With nine years of experience, and working in the haemodialysis sector, which is a high-risk area, I get just 38,000 dinars per month," he added.
Among the strikers' demands are an official declaration of special employment status for doctors, a detailed working-out of the allowances system and government engagement of the union as a full-fledged social partner.
The SNPSP argues that the government should immediately set up a committee responsible for the allowances system that would bring together union and Health Ministry representatives.
Some of the union's grievances also spring from the fact that the ministry modified the special status of general practitioners in the public health system without SNPSP agreement.
"Ministry representatives … confirmed that the draft decree on the special status of general practitioners in the public health service had been discussed and approved by the government committee," Merabet told the media on December 5th.
The SNPSP is in talks with other health-sector unions about finding a "common approach" to labor-management disputes, according to a December 14th press statement from SNPSP General Secretary Lyès Merabet.
"We're convinced of the legitimacy … of the SNPSP action," Dr Ouledslimane Mahmoud, vice-president of the National Union of Specialist Practitioners, told Magharebia last week. Mahmoud said his union would have to decide what action to take on December 19th at its national council meeting.
The SNPSP's planned open-ended strike is "illegal" in the eyes of the courts, Health Minister Said Barkat said on national radio on December 19th. Merabet, in response, publicly questioned how the courts could pass judgment on as-yet untaken actions.
The ministry had promised to address organized labor's main demands at a December 10th "conciliation meeting" involving representatives of the Labor Ministry and civil servants.
Merabet subsequently announced that ministry representatives had offered nothing concrete in the course of the six-hour meeting. "The meeting with … the Health Ministry … was rubber-stamped with a set of minutes summarizing the key points of the discussions", he said, adding that the SNPSP is the workers' "legal representative" and has a right to participate in everything connected with the sector.
The union leader also dismissed the tripartite meeting among labor, government, and employer representatives on December 3rd that hammered out an increase in the national minimum wage. Merabet described the meeting as "monopartite" and not inclusive of what he called the relevant unions.
"The increase in the national minimum wage will be of no benefit to virtually the majority of public-sector workers," said the union leader. "On the contrary, it is the top civil servants [whose salaries are calculated on the basis of the minimum wage] who will benefit."
Health Ministry representatives contacted by Magharebia did not wish to comment on criticisms of the modified minimum wage.
Would-be patients, meanwhile, seem frustrated by the latest labor action.
"I get the impression that hospitals are always on strike," Mourad, 47, told Magharebia. "Every year it's the same thing," he said, as he waited for his daughter to get a vaccination at the Mustapha Bacha Hospital in Algiers. "They're driving us all into the private sector."
Even some health-care workers are expressing doubts over the wisdom of the timing of the strike, given the flood of emergency-room visitors worried about symptoms they fear stem from swine flu.
"It really isn't the moment to go on strike," said Malik, a nurse at Mustapha Bacha Hospital. "It's true that the doctors are providing a minimum level of service and that their demands are legitimate, but given that members of the public are bringing their children in at the slightest sniffle, the situation is becoming unmanageable."
By Mouna Sadek for Magharebia in Algiers
A plan by Algerian public health care workers to escalate more than a month of rolling three-day strikes into an "open-ended" work stoppage on Monday (December 21st) is raising concerns over the timing of their labor action.
Judging from the hard work on display at the Sidi M'hammed Health Center in central Algiers, some doctors seem to be ignoring directives from the National Union of Public Health Practitioners (SNPSP).
One centre employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Magharebia last week that doctors had to be "careful" because the strike had lasted too long. "It's a huge responsibility; the health sector is very sensitive," he said. "We still have to act in accordance with our professional conscience."
He also said doctors fear receiving smaller paychecks, because the Health Ministry has been "raiding" strikers' salaries. "With nine years of experience, and working in the haemodialysis sector, which is a high-risk area, I get just 38,000 dinars per month," he added.
Among the strikers' demands are an official declaration of special employment status for doctors, a detailed working-out of the allowances system and government engagement of the union as a full-fledged social partner.
The SNPSP argues that the government should immediately set up a committee responsible for the allowances system that would bring together union and Health Ministry representatives.
Some of the union's grievances also spring from the fact that the ministry modified the special status of general practitioners in the public health system without SNPSP agreement.
"Ministry representatives … confirmed that the draft decree on the special status of general practitioners in the public health service had been discussed and approved by the government committee," Merabet told the media on December 5th.
The SNPSP is in talks with other health-sector unions about finding a "common approach" to labor-management disputes, according to a December 14th press statement from SNPSP General Secretary Lyès Merabet.
"We're convinced of the legitimacy … of the SNPSP action," Dr Ouledslimane Mahmoud, vice-president of the National Union of Specialist Practitioners, told Magharebia last week. Mahmoud said his union would have to decide what action to take on December 19th at its national council meeting.
The SNPSP's planned open-ended strike is "illegal" in the eyes of the courts, Health Minister Said Barkat said on national radio on December 19th. Merabet, in response, publicly questioned how the courts could pass judgment on as-yet untaken actions.
The ministry had promised to address organized labor's main demands at a December 10th "conciliation meeting" involving representatives of the Labor Ministry and civil servants.
Merabet subsequently announced that ministry representatives had offered nothing concrete in the course of the six-hour meeting. "The meeting with … the Health Ministry … was rubber-stamped with a set of minutes summarizing the key points of the discussions", he said, adding that the SNPSP is the workers' "legal representative" and has a right to participate in everything connected with the sector.
The union leader also dismissed the tripartite meeting among labor, government, and employer representatives on December 3rd that hammered out an increase in the national minimum wage. Merabet described the meeting as "monopartite" and not inclusive of what he called the relevant unions.
"The increase in the national minimum wage will be of no benefit to virtually the majority of public-sector workers," said the union leader. "On the contrary, it is the top civil servants [whose salaries are calculated on the basis of the minimum wage] who will benefit."
Health Ministry representatives contacted by Magharebia did not wish to comment on criticisms of the modified minimum wage.
Would-be patients, meanwhile, seem frustrated by the latest labor action.
"I get the impression that hospitals are always on strike," Mourad, 47, told Magharebia. "Every year it's the same thing," he said, as he waited for his daughter to get a vaccination at the Mustapha Bacha Hospital in Algiers. "They're driving us all into the private sector."
Even some health-care workers are expressing doubts over the wisdom of the timing of the strike, given the flood of emergency-room visitors worried about symptoms they fear stem from swine flu.
"It really isn't the moment to go on strike," said Malik, a nurse at Mustapha Bacha Hospital. "It's true that the doctors are providing a minimum level of service and that their demands are legitimate, but given that members of the public are bringing their children in at the slightest sniffle, the situation is becoming unmanageable."
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.