Romanian Healthcare Union Federation Calls Off Planned Protests

07 nov. 2008, 11:10, English

Union leader Marius Petcu said the offer presented by the minister Thursday is the best that healthcare employees could get out of the current government.

"The agreement we plan to sign includes 15 items. We have still to negotiate on three items, the most delicate issues, which regard salary raises. We thought it would be best to prepare a salary raise package, and by that we mean different bonuses and effective salary raises,” Nicolaescu said Thursday after a two-hour meeting with unionists.

He added negotiations were tough and healthcare staff deserves better wages, but the possibilities of the system must be considered.

“A large, decisive, step will be made next week, when we are very likely to sign an agreement,” the minister said.

Union leader Petcu said in his turn that he is not fully satisfied with the ministry’s offer, but he said progress was made in the talks.

"We will certainly not settle for 7%. We’ve already talked about 10%. Of course, we’d like to get 20%, but we can’t just demand that on our own because we have to see what happens with other categories of public sector employees as well, that is, we have to wait for the result of negotiations between the government and unions,” Petcu said.

The Sanitas federation threatened last week to organize an ample street action in Bucharest on November 11, followed by a warning strike on November 14 and a general strike starting November 20.

Citește și

healthcare protests talks wages