1,000 healthcare workers protest against working conditions

Around 1,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona on Saturday to once again protest against the new agreement signed by the Catalan government and four healthcare workers’ trade unions -Metges de Catalunya, CCOO, UGT, and SATSE. The union CATAC-CTS was the only union present at the negotiations that did not sign the agreement.

According to CATAC-CTS, the new agreement “undervalues” health technicians economically and does not include improvements in working conditions.

“What the Health Minister wants to do is to worsen the workers’ conditions in order to worsen the quality of the public healthcare system," Jesús Frías, a member of CATAC-CTS, said during the demonstration.

Labor agreement 

The agreement in question was ratified in December by the Catalan government. 

It is the ICS's third labor agreement, signed with several unions – CCOO, UGT, doctors' union Metges de Catalunya, and SATSE – to improve the working conditions of around 55,000 healthcare workers who work for ICS, the public company that manages the majority of primary care centers (289) in Catalonia and eight large hospitals. 

The agreement includes an additional €320 million in spending per year. Measures include salary improvements for doctors from the time they join the ICS, a specific supplement for primary care, and a supplement for senior doctors who stop working on call.

Fixed salaries for nurses increase by €1,700 per year.

"Miserable" increase 

Jesús Frías from the CATAC-CTS union warned in December that the pre-agreement "implies a miserable wage increase" for many categories of healthcare professionals.  

Néstor Sastre from SOM Intersindical labeled the pre-agreement "discriminatory," as there are categories that benefit – a reference to doctors – while others have virtually no increase, he said.  

According to Sastre, 56% of the pre-agreement budget goes to doctors, while some other categories have 2 or 3%. "It is contempt for the rest of the professional categories," he said. 

Organized by several unions - Intersindical, CGT, Infermeres de Catalunya, Som Sanitat, la Federació de Treballadors de Catalunya, and others – the demonstration comes one day after Catalan nurses called off their strike after having reached an agreement with the Catalan Health Ministry.