The minimum monthly salary for a nurse or a midwife will increase to €640 as of next April according to a legislative proposal drafted by the Health Ministry and approved by the cabinet on November 9. The new minimum salary would apply to all nurses and midwives regardless of their employer, the TASR newswire wrote, adding that the salary could be as much as €928 per month for certain specialisations.
Health Minister Ivan Uhliarik thanked the nurses on November 9 for choosing negotiations as the method to achieve their demands rather than using patients as hostages and resigning which Uhliarik said Slovakia's doctors are threatening to do.
The doctors’ condition for withdrawal of their resignation notices is an increase in their average wage by €1,900 per month at the beginning of next year, according to Uhliarik.
"Including extra pay, the average gross monthly wage of a doctor would then be €3,500," Uhliarik stated. The average is currently around €1,600. The minister acknowledged that doctors deserve higher salaries but stated, “lets' land on the Earth; these are unrealistic requirements," as quoted by the SITA newswire.
The minister said to meet the demands of the doctors the state would need to spend about €200 million more, while adding that doctors will get a pay rise even without further negotiations based on the law on remuneration of nurses approved by the cabinet. According to the Labour Code and the Anti-Discrimination Act hospitals must increase doctors' salaries if nurses get a pay rise.
Source: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
