State doctors and nurses to strike next week

Doctors and nurses at state hospitals have decided to go on a two-hour work stoppage next week, in a bid to exert pressure for having certain collective agreements renewed.

Unions SEK, PEO, Deok, Pasydy, Pasyki and Pasyno announced that the ‘warning strike’ would take place from 8.30am to 10.30am on Tuesday, January 17.

In a joint statement, the unions said they were taking the action because the state health services organisation (Okypy) had not kept up its obligations in drawing up a new collective agreement for staff.

The matter concerns renewing the collective agreement for staff hired on personal contracts that were set to expire at the end of December 2022.

The syndicates said they had earlier given fair warning to Okypy that the matter should have been resolved within November. Okypy had failed to take any action.

“The organisation [Okypy] had been warned not to drag its feet on such a serious matter impacting a large number of workers,” the statement read.