site.btaEmployers Demand Analysis of Why Hospitals Can't Increase Wages, Unions Ready to Protest

Employers are demanding an analysis of the reasons why hospitals cannot increase wages and unions are ready to protest. These positions were expressed to journalists by representatives of the employers' organizations and the "Podkrepa" Confederation of Labour after a meeting with the caretaker Minister of Health Galya Kondeva.

"Employers have always wanted to stand on a solid foundation and we insist on an analysis with economic justification and all the reasons why a particular medical institution has not reached the basic wages specified in the Collective Labour Agreement," said Dr. Nedelcho Totev, Chairman of the National Association of Municipal Hospitals in Bulgaria. "We are waiting for the analysis and we hope that something serious will be put on the table on which to build and further build the contractual process itself. We will continue to raise salaries according to the available opportunities and the lack of a collective agreement does not mean that salaries will be frozen," he assured. Totev said he was not familiar with the proposal made earlier today by Dr. Ivan Madjarov that doctors' salaries should be linked to the average salary for the country, but pointed out that he would have nothing against it if funds were provided. He said that quite a few hospitals work on clinical pathways increased by 7-10%, which means that they could not reach the set basic salaries. He said 60% of the hospitals could not provide the basic salaries set in the previous collective agreement and the draft of the new one asked for 25% higher basic salaries. Medical institutions will go bankrupt very quickly if fines are imposed, he said.

"We want a wage increase, but again we do not meet the understanding of employers and they continue to ask for analyses - something they have been asking for since February, and this is just playing for time," said Rositsa Paleshnikova, a representative of "Podkrepa". "Minister Kondeva has a great desire to help, but it is unlikely that a solution will be reached in the next 3-4 months because employers want huge analyses and this is a job requiring two or three months. This means not taking any concrete decisions until September, which will put us on the street," Paleshnikova said, adding that people should not have to work for 3-4 years below the living wage just because some employers cannot run their hospitals as they should.

The term of the contract is two years and expires in mid-April 2024. It specifies basic salaries for a doctor without specialty - BGN 2,000, for a nurse - BGN 1,500, for a sanitarian - BGN 910. There is no new agreement yet as employers and unions cannot agree. 

Later on Monday, the Health Ministry said in a press release that Minister Galya Kondeva and the Council for Tripartite Cooperation in Healthcare outlined a plan to sign a new collective agreement. Employers should propose a structure for a new in-depth analysis covering all 181 health care facilities - state and municipal. To this end, a unified methodology will also be developed to assess the reasons why hospitals have failed to reach the wage levels of the existing collective contract. In parallel with the work on the analysis, the meetings will also start discussing specific texts for a new agreement.