Hospital practitioners are on strike on October 10, to warn of the deterioration of their working conditions, and of the hospital’s growing lack of attractiveness.
The event is rare, and the unions are counting on this fact to send a strong political message to the government. Hospital practitioners (PH) join the civil servants’ strike on Tuesday, October 10.
In particular, they want to make their voice heard on the deterioration of their working conditions and the loss of purchasing power that they are suffering. In a press release, they denounce the freezing of the index point of civil servants, which they also suffer, but especially the increase in the CSG, the reestablishment of the waiting day, and the reform of their retirement points.
The increase in CSG uncompensated
In 1984, a hospital practitioner received five times the minimum wage at the start of his career. Today, he receives 2.8 times the minimum salary, recalls the intersyndicale of PH Avenir hospitalier. Blame it on the freezing of the civil servants index, which therefore no longer follows inflation, but not only.
The 1.7% increase in the CSG, scheduled for 1er January 2018, will not be compensated. “It will be balanced for civil servants. It will be for liberal doctors. But hospital practitioners were not even invited to the discussions, ”denounces Dr. Max-André Doppia, president of Avenir hospitalier, contacted by Why actor.
According to the union, the budgetary constraints weighing on public health hospitals hamper recruitment and the attractiveness of careers. And wages are not the only black spot for unions. A day of deficiency in the event of sick leave has been reinstated. “Doctors stop very little, and if they do, it’s when they are really, really sick. They do not take sick leave at 38 ° C fever. This is unacceptable, ”says Dr Doppia indignantly.
Affected rights
Fourth point developed by hospital practitioners: retirement. Not being really civil servants, they are attached to Ircantec, a supplementary retirement institution for contractual public employees. However, a reform came to remove the retirement points on the time savings accounts (CET) of doctors, on which they can save their overtime, then convertible into rest or money.
“Personally, I was not able to take days off, and I asked to be paid hours of my CET,” explains Dr. Doppia. The reform being retroactive to 1er January 2017, I will therefore lose retirement points. This is also the case for most of the PH, who work an average of 54 hours per week.
“It is in the best interests of the patients”
“Beyond these specific elements, the real reason for our strike lies in the expression of our anger at the degradation of the public hospital. Its performance is there, and is recognized, but we work in less and less acceptable conditions. It is also in the best interests of the patients, ”concludes Dr Doppia.
On the strike follow-up rate, the president of Avenir hospitalier seems to have few illusions, because the hospital must continue to operate, and will do so, in any case, with non-tenured practitioners and temporary workers, who are more and more numerous in the hospital. But he hopes that the strong message that the PH want to send will be well received by the government.
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