The workers of the Santa Caterina de Salt Hospital and the Xarxa de Salut Mental have started an indefinite hourly strike today to request labor and remuneration improvements. The convening unions request that the seniority that applies to a part of the staff be extended to the entire staff. On Thursday they have called a demonstration.
The convening unions, CCOO, UGT, Satse and Doctors of Catalonia, read a manifesto this morning at the doors of the health center to denounce their situation. They denounce the "precarious" situation of public health in general, which is more aggravated among the staff of the Institute of Health Assistance (IAS).
In the document they emphasize that since 2008, workers in the health field have lost 25% of purchasing power and that there is not a year in which salary increases are equivalent to the increase in the CPI.
The IAS works councils request that the seniority charged by the most veteran staff, a total of 278 workers out of the 1,800 professionals on the staff, be extended to the rest, thus avoiding a "double salary ladder". A petition for which they filed a lawsuit.
They assure that the IAS response was three lawsuits against the works councils requesting the annulment of the company agreements that have been in force for 29 years and 19 years. According to the IAS, these union pacts of adhesion to the XHUP convention of 1994 for the Santa Caterina Hospital and the one of 2004 for the Xarxa de Salut Mental are old and "to be extinguished". The negotiation between both parties is stopped.
According to the unions, what has been achieved so far by the company "is insufficient." They explain that the offers are based on the concession of two additional days of vacation, as long as they have completed 25 years of service in the company. They add that the company is suppressing basic rights such as family reconciliation.
Apart from the mobilizations planned this week, the three works councils of the IAS have adopted the decision to take legal measures by filing a lawsuit for collective conflict. They consider that the company is committing an "illegal act and violating the rights of workers" when it stops applying the increases in the agreement.
In a press release, the IAS explains that in the last five years the budget allocated to personnel has grown by 30% and that all the salary improvements and supplements provided for in the III Conveni Siscat, which governs IAS personnel, were applied on the March payroll with retroactive effect to January 1.
They add that in application of this agreement, the IAS will increase the salary bill this year by nine million euros, so that the expense destined to personnel will grow by approximately 10%.
Regarding the dispute that confronts them with the works council, they affirm that the IAS "is always willing to negotiate improvements that can benefit all the personnel, as long as they are within the current legislation and the viability of the company". In this sense, they hope to reach an agreement "within the framework of the legal possibilities and limitations of public companies."
