Citizen nurses' project: any change in the law is opening Pandora's box

The emergency subcommittee tasked with preparing the draft, submitted by the nurses, for further work deliberated for more than two hours on Tuesday late afternoon, and still did not even move on to parliamentary discussion - only representatives of the social side practically spoke.

As Krystyna Ptok, chairwoman of the OZZPiP, representing the applicants, said, the draft amendments to the law are the aftermath of ignoring the position of nurses and midwives at all stages of the work on the minimum wage law. - The opinion of the Trade Union Forum, on the occasion of successive amendments, was ignored. Our doubts are confirmed by the current situation, when a huge number of nurses are in labor courts. There are a huge number of these cases nationwide, and they are mostly won," she reminded.

The changes proposed in the citizens' bill concern occupations assigned to groups five and six. The amendment to the law on minimum wages envisages raising labor coefficients for occupations classified precisely in these two groups. The bill also includes a solution to the dilemma of whether an employee is assigned to a group according to qualifications possessed or required, unequivocally determining that it is qualifications possessed that count. What's more, the employer would have to immediately "retrain" the employee if qualifications are upgraded. The draft also includes a guarantee to transfer funds to cover the increase in the minimum wage set by the law within the framework of the publicly funded health benefits system.

The discussion showed unequivocally that any change in the law is the proverbial opening of Pandora's box. Speaking representatives of unions and professional self-governments, who declared support for the bill, also stressed their - smaller or larger - conditions. The OZZL, for example, wants a guarantee of three times the national average for specialist doctors to be written into the bill. But there was also no shortage of voices opposing the bill for fundamental reasons. - This version of the law on minimum wages is not our agreement, because she does not eliminate wage differences. She will perpetuate them and force wage pressures and open up further wage demands," said Renata Górna, representing the All-Poland Trade Union Agreement. - In our opinion, this law has one big flaw, that it represents only selected professional groups, and not all of them, she added. Maria Ochman of Solidarity Health Care pointed out that while the current law on minimum wages is certainly not perfect, its virtue is that everyone benefits from it. - I haven't heard of anyone refusing to accept a raise," she said, adding that nurses, too, are neither unanimous on the law, nor, still less, can they agree within their profession on what direction the law should (possibly) be amended.

- The environment is divided, because such a large disparity in salaries has just given rise to a division of the environment, but also a great deal of anxiety and disagreement that precisely the professional group of nurses and midwives has unrecognized qualifications," said Mariola Lodzinska, president of the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives. - Our disagreement is that we are held hostage by this law," the head of the Chamber added.

Many speakers pointed out that for the majority of workers the law is a sham insofar as it refers to minimum wages, when in fact it specifies the absolute maximum they can count on.

Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna, in summing up the long discussion, assured that if the government had not seen the possibility of changes in the law, work on the amendment would not have started, but at the same time admitted that the topic is very difficult. The analyses the health ministry is making together with the NFZ are supposed to show what possibilities there are for a rational compromise.

The next meeting of the health subcommittee is expected to take place "soon," although it will probably be on the occasion of the next parliamentary week (March 6-8).