Poland: Nurses in tent city demand pay rise

For the past few weeks the Polish public health services have clearly been in crisis. Doctors in many public hospitals are on strike and only treat patients with life threatening problems. They demand, obviously, a pay rise. Many doctors have also resigned from their jobs, forcing many hospitals to send their patients to be attended at hospitals elsewhere.

On June 19th, after a demonstration of a few thousand public health workers, a group of nurses gathered in front of the Prime Minister's office and waited for him to talk to them and act on their demands (which included, among other things, a pay rise). From the start the Prime Minister did not want to talk to them, with the excuse that their demonstration and picket were illegal. The protesting nurses just decided to stay there for longer. They put up tents and many nurses from all over the country lived there for 27 days, some even going on a hunger strike. Eventually the prime minister agreed to talk to them, but the talks did not lead to any compromise and the government decided to ignore their protest. On July 15th, the nurses closed down their ?white (tent) town?, but decided to resume striking after the summer, starting with the great demonstration planned for September 19th, when they will return to Warsaw with many representatives from the various public health trade unions.

The Polish Minister of Health, who was quite recently diagnosed with lung cancer, does not have an easy task to deal with. A few week long talks with doctors and nurses have not brought any results. Both nurses and doctors expect pay rises, but the government claim there are not enough resources in the budget for any pay rises, especially as the demands concern thousands of workers.

The public supports the doctors and nurses on the one hand, as their salaries are indeed very low. But, when asked if they are willing to pay higher taxes for public health or whether they would partially pay for health services, their support of public health workers demands decreases. The government talks of increasing taxes and imposing a partial price on healthcare services as the solution that would enable an increase in wages for health workers. While it certainly would be a solution, it is also a smart government trick to try and reduce the support the public feels for the health workers.

Polish public health services really are in crisis. It is now only the tip of an iceberg that has been growing for many years. The negotiating power of doctors and nurses has been even greater since Poland joined the European Union and Polish people can move abroad where they can work and earn much higher wages. And many public health workers have already done so.