Success for nurses and midwives. What did the nurses and midwives fight for?
Published July 31, 2023 08:21
"It passed!" - rejoice nurses and midwives "But this is only the beginning of the road to reforming Polish nursing." - they add. Their months-long efforts have finally met with a concrete answer. And that is today's vote in the Sejm on a bill to amend the law on the method of determining the lowest basic remuneration for nurses and midwives in groups 5 and 6, created by the OZZPiP and the legislative initiative committee. By the decision of the voting deputies, the bill was referred to the Health Committee and the Finance Committee for further work.
- This is undoubtedly a great success for us, but most of all for the patients. Thanks to today's vote, we have a real chance to save Polish health care, because the project is the voice of our environment, which now has a real chance to attract young graduates to work in a beautiful profession and to keep those who, feeling disadvantaged and discriminated against, wanted to leave it. Because our place is with the patient, which each of us was, is or can be, we are happy to be able to focus on our mission again, rather than another fight for fair treatment," says Krystyna Ptok, chairwoman of the OZZPiP and plenipotentiary of the citizens' legislative initiative committee. - We believe that further work will bring the desired result of recognizing the powers we have and reducing the wage gap," she adds.
What did the nurses and midwives fight for?
On July 1, 2022, an amendment to the Law on the Method of Determining the Minimum Basic Salary of Certain Employees of Medical Entities was introduced. Nurses and midwives rightly expected the associated chaos, which could have been prevented. At the time, the Board of the All-Poland Union of Nurses and Midwives came up with a proposal for changes aimed at introducing amendments to the law that were necessary from the point of view of the environment, which the Polish Senate adopted, but unfortunately the Polish Parliament rejected. The law as it stands today has led to numerous degradations and professional discrimination against nurses and midwives in Poland. There has been a wave of protests across the country, including a nationwide one on May 23 this year. Nurses and midwives have also gone to the courts, which most often rule favorably in their favor. To date, there are nearly 3,000 cases of discrimination and degradation against nurses, which only proves the flawed nature of the July 1 amendment. The bill voted on today gives hope that the place of Polish nurses and midwives will cease to be a courtroom or a parliamentary rostrum, and will be a presence at the patient's bedside.
The purpose of the changes advocated by the environment, which were included in the citizens' draft on how to determine the lowest salary, was at least four points:
- Raising labor rates for the 5th and 6th occupational groups, which will increase their earnings.
- Linking remuneration to actual qualifications rather than required qualifications.
- Guaranteeing the transfer of funds to cover the increase in the minimum wage set by law within the system of publicly funded health benefits.
- The crediting of each nurse and midwife to a group with a higher coefficient as of the next month after documenting the qualifications they have obtained.
The aforementioned changes will attract young people to the profession and ensure that a greater proportion of graduates enter the public health system and at the same time retain 80,000 nurses who have acquired pension rights in the profession.
Today's parliamentary vote was attended by 453 deputies. 241 deputies were in favor, 212 were against, and no one abstained.
