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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 28.03.2024, 23:19

Some medical establishments in Latvia raised salaries to the personnel after the protest

BC, Riga, 09.08.2017.Print version
The warning action by medics organized by the Latvian Trade Union of Health and Social Care Workers (LVSADA) in July has definitely borne fruit, both short-term and long-term, said Valdis Keris, the leader of the trade union, reports LETA.

He said that some medical establishments had raised salaries to the medical personnel on the eve of the protest campaign so that they would not join the protest but others had to re-schedule surgeries as the staff refused to work overtime for which they were not paid properly.

 

Patients had also felt the effects of the warning action, and some had reacted angrily when told that their surgeries will have to be put off, Keris said.

 

The trade union leader said that medics were prepared to stage more effective protests in the future, seeking to target mostly politicians rather than patients. "It is because of their [politicians'] procrastination and irresponsibility that health care financing and medics' salaries are so low," he said.

 

He said the LVSADA members would discuss the ways to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the work of politicians in the future.

 

As reported, about 800 medics participated in a warning action, refusing to work extended regular working hours which essentially is unpaid overtime for a month from July 1 to July 31. The LVSADA said that they had decided to hold the warning campaign because the legislative amendments adopted earlier failed to ensure anticipated improvement in the situation of those medics, who were working extended regular hours.






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