Health minister announces settlement in medical staff pay dispute

Poland's health minister announced on Friday that an agreement has been reached for an increase in expenditure for the health care system, but some protest groups say that they have not agreed to the plan and will continue their fight for better conditions.

Adam Niedzielski said at a press conference that he is "pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached and that this agreement was adopted unanimously by both employers and employee representatives." The agreement, as he pointed out, means an increase in expenditure in the health care system and remuneration for medical workers.

"The estimated cost of the accepted proposal is approximately PLN 6.5 billion (EUR 1.4 billion). This is a huge and impressive amount which means very real increases in salaries from next year for practically every medical profession," Niedzielski said.

He added that "these increases are really high and place salaries in the medical sector on a high level, because even at the lowest levels… the salary will be PLN 3,500 (EUR 762 – PAP), while in the entire economy it stands at PLN 3,000 (EUR 653 – PAP)".

Despite an invitation from the ministry, representatives of the protest committee from the "white town", a protest camp set up by medical workers close to the Prime Minister's Office in Warsaw, did not participate in the meeting. "Our protest continues. We have not signed any agreements with @MZ_GOV_PL (the Health Ministry). We do not know the content of the arrangements with the tripartite team, in which there are no representatives of our Committee. There is NO agreement with the protesting health care workers," the Committee tweeted in response to the minister's words.

Maria Ochman, chairwoman of the National Secretariat for Healthcare of NSZZ "Solidarnosc" announced that another meeting of the Tripartite Team for Healthcare will be held in November. "We will talk about the quality act, among other things," she said.