Day of vertigo for the Aragonese health sector. After two months of negotiations and eight intense meetings, including the one on Monday lasting more than five hours, the Aragonese Health Service and the CC.OO., UGT and CSIF unions reached a preliminary agreement in Zaragoza that will serve to call off the planned general strike for this Friday in all the Aragonese public health. The pact will become official this Tuesday with the signing of the final agreement, which will bury the call for the strike and must then go through the Sector Table and the Governing Council.
Initially, the meeting on Monday was going to serve to negotiate the minimum services for the strike day on Friday. However, the parties made one last effort and agreed to address again the most critical points of the process until reaching an understanding.
The preliminary agreement reached, of which more details will be announced this Tuesday, contemplates the payment of level 3 of the professional career to management and professional training personnel, recognized in many cases since 2010 and one of the main claims of the unions throughout the process. The payment is "a historical fact" that, according to calculations by the unions themselves, could amount to almost 4 million euros.
In this sense, "one more step" has been taken because the commitment to study later the unlocking of the level 4 payment for later years has also been achieved. "It was one of the most important obstacles, but it seems that having additional funds, something that was approved last week at the General Table, has facilitated the situation," said a satisfied Delia Lizana, from the Federation of Health and Sociosanitary Sectors. of CC.OO. Aragon.
Another of the union demands addressed is the study of the opening of the health centers in Aragon until 8:00 p.m., although the steps to do so are still pending. What does seem clear is that it will be through a sliding shift and with Continuing Care personnel. "The opening of the centers will be facilitated until 8:00 p.m., but we do not know how many for now," said Jessica Fessenden, spokesperson for Health at CSIF Aragón
There was also progress to implement the 35-hour work week, which is applied by all communities except five (Aragon included). “The advance has been at the last minute. We wanted to apply it in a different way, but in the end in the negotiation there are always hairs on the cat flap and the application will be progressive in the coming years”, Lizana advanced.
In addition, the creation of the figure of the technical coordinator was achieved, a professional profile "more alien to the citizen, but very important for professionals."
In total, a little more than half of the requests that the unions presented to Health at the beginning of the negotiations have been unblocked. After the arduous process, the sensations are "very satisfactory" because the main and most important ones have been achieved. “We would have liked to improve all of them, but this is the negotiation”, justified Lizana.
To get to this point, it has been key for Health to attend today's meeting with the economic report from the Government of Aragon that supports the power to assume part of the claims requested by the unions.
This Monday's meeting took place after hundreds of people demonstrated on Sunday through the center of the Aragonese capital to denounce the "deficient management" of Health resources, which "makes accessibility difficult for citizens, the lack of commitment of the Administration in negotiations and the need to improve the working conditions of all professional categories”.
