By Evie Andreou
THERE can be no discussion about increased benefits when we are amidst a memorandum and there are 70,000 people who are unemployed, Health minister Philippos Patsalis said on Thursday after the nurses union PASYNO staged a 12-hour strike.
“PASYNO’s strike in such difficult times and especially to claim salary increases which would cost €27m, while also claiming unhealthy occupation allowance is unjustifiable and unnecessary, to say the least,” Patsalis told CyBC.
The union, that called the strike from 7.15am to 7.15pm, apologised to the public for the inconvenience and said that it was forced to take this measure since the government did not heed to the nurses’ demands.
No major problems were recorded at the Nicosia and Larnaca general hospitals, compared to Limassol, Paphos and Famagusta hospitals where more PASYNO members were working.
“We have exhausted all options, dialogue after dialogue, we sent a letter to the minister, we met with him several times, but unfortunately there was no other way to claim our rights as nurses,” said PASYNO general secretary Georgios Frixou.
He said that the union wants their pay scales to be adjusted to the same level as the other university-graduate civil servants, from A5 to A8, that nurses on term contracts who have served for more than 30 months be given indefinite contracts and for the unfreezing of 189 posts for which candidates took the exams in 2011 and are already working, but still on temporary contacts.
He added that the last demand does not burden the state budget since the nurses are already employed.
Frixou said that his union wants for discussion to begin on these issues since it is a long process, so that they will be ready when the government has concluded the bail-out plan and the country is free of the memorandum.
Patsalis said he discussed both the issues of pay scale adjustment and unhealthy working allowance with the two nurses’ unions, PASYDI and PASYNO.
“Concerning pay scales, it is an issue we will see in the future, and I gave it in writing and the same goes for the unhealthy profession allowance,” Patsalis said.
Answering to Frixou’s claims that the government is violating EU legislation by not offering indefinite contracts to contract nurses that have been employed for more than 30 months, Patsalis said that there is no abnormality as the employees are not fired, but that they are being rehired.
PASYDI’s nurses union announced that they would not go on a strike since they wanted to give ample time to the ministry to take the necessary actions to be able to respond to their demands.
The two unions had sent a letter to Patsalis on January 28.
PASYNO urged hospital administrations to allow its members to take part in the strike and nursing students to support it since the union’s demands pave the way to their own professional future, they said.
