Labour Unions, Latvia, Law and Regulations, Markets and Companies, Medicine

The Economics Ministry has prepared a draft Cabinet of Ministers regulation listing 29 specialties in which foreign specialists could be hired in Latvia on more lax requirements because of the anticipated shortage of labor in those specialties in Latvia. The list also includes medical specialists.

This plan runs counter to the statements that Latvia has enough medical specialists, Rudzite said. Moreover, instead of following the recommendations by the World Health Organization to focus on supplying the health care sector with local specialists, the government intends to take the easy way out, the trade union's spokeswoman said.

LVSADA leader Valdis Keris is exasperated by the government's plan. "Instead of starting paying decent salaries to local medics, the government intends to import doctors and, on top of that, to ease the requirements [for hiring foreign employees]," he said.