Doctors Threaten Action Over Pay Cut

SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Thursday December 9

CANARIAN junior doctors published an open letter to patients on Thursday giving their reasons for strike action later this month.

by JAMES TWEEDIE

The letter, entitled 'Perdon' (sorry) was released by the Grupo de Protesta de MIR Canarias, which represents resident trainee doctors in the archipelago's hospitals and health centres.

It asked patients to support the doctors' campaign against regional government plans to cut their basic wage and night duty rate.

The threatened pay cuts would come on top of a five per cent salary reduction and a pensions freeze for all public sector workers imposed by the central government in Madrid this summer, a move which sparked a national one-day public sector strike on June 8 (pictured, below).

Currently doctors earn an average of €1,100 per month basic, plus between €8.91 and €14,82 per hour – depending on seniority – for gruelling 17-hour overnight duties, which follow a normal seven-hour day shift. Junior doctors work two to four such night shifts per month.

The Popular Party - Canarian Coalition controlled regional parliament proposes slashing night duty pay to just €7 per hour, making further cuts to the basic salary and abolishing the modest incremental pay increases from grades R1 to R5.

In addition, the government wants to cap the number maximum of overnight duties that each doctor can be paid for to four per month – potentially jeopardising cover if a member of staff falls ill.

The pay reductions are part of a broader raft of proposed cuts totalling €319 million, or almost 12 per cent of the regional health budget, to be voted on by the Canarian Parliament on December 20.

The doctor's group pointed out in its letter that the average regional health cuts across Spain are just over four per cent.

They argued that while junior doctors earn more than the Spanish national minimum wage – currently €739 per month – they believed that they deserved it, pointing out that they were among the worst-paid health professionals in Europe.

The MIR is the national entrance exam for the Spanish national health service's trainee specialist doctor programme.

Before sitting the MIR doctors must complete the full seven-year course of medical studies, and commonly study a further year for the exam.

The group is planning strike action this month, although no date has been set. However, health service doctors are obliged by their employment contracts to provide a minimal level of service at all times, so it is unclear how much disruption any action would cause.

The Socialist Workers' Party government in Madrid recently upped the stakes in public-sector disputes when it declared a national state of emergency and called in the armed forces to suppress a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers in early December.

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