REPRESENTATIVES of nurses and midwives want to turn to deputies to solve their salary dispute. Health Minister Zuzana Zvolenská is not sincerely interested in solving their problems, head of the Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives (SKSaPA) Iveta Lazorová said on October 29. The statement came in response to the October 28 meeting at the Health Ministry where, according to nurses, the minister refused all of their demands, the SITA newswire reported.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry informed on its website that nurses should earn at least €652 a month as of next year, the Sme daily wrote in its October 30 issue. The law concerns all medical workers, except for doctors. It is not clear when the law, setting conditions only for state-run facilities, will be submitted to interdepartmental review, as reported by Sme.
“Unfortunately, after long negotiations we came to the end that Health Minister Zuzana Zvolenská does not want to accept any of the requirements of nurses we published this August as comments to the law on health-care providers,” Lazorová said, as quoted by SITA.
Lazorová added that the MPs have already legally guaranteed minimum salaries to them. The law passed in 2012 however was valid only for few months until the Constitutional Court ruled it unconstitutional. In attempt to point to their problems, the representatives of nurses have already arranged a protest in front of the parliament and raised a tent town in front of the Government Office, SITA wrote.
The SKSaPA says the law, which will deal with salaries to medical workers, should apply to all nurses regardless the facility in which they work. The association also calls on the Health Ministry to increase the proposed coefficients from 0.81 to 0.87 from the average wage in national economy. The third demand of nurses is to increase the coefficient by 0.03 every three years of experience or midwife service. The last demand aims the guarantee of salaries for nurses working in social service and school facilities with subsequent gradual top-up, SITA wrote.
Health Ministry spokeswoman Martina Šoltésová said the ministry has studied the demands in details, but said it cannot fulfil several demands. The ministry explained the law should deal with salaries of all medical workers, not only nurses and midwives. The ministry also said it can set conditions only in state-run hospitals.
Source: SITA, Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
