Romanian healthcare employees reach deal with Govt. on bonuses

The unions in the public healthcare system have managed to convince the Government to change the public payroll law and the bonus system in the healthcare sector. After close to 11 hours of negotiations, health minister Sorina Pintea and labor minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu announced that the payroll law would be changed to meet the demands of the healthcare employees. The union representatives also announced that they would give up the general strike, which was supposed to take place on Friday, May 11. “Following talks with the hospital managers and union leaders, we have reached the conclusion that the payroll law and the bonus system were sometimes applied subjectively. We have decided to change the law,” health minister Sorina Pintea said, according to local Mediafax. Labor minister Lia Olguta Vasilescu explained that the changes to the law would only target the bonuses. Thus, the extra payment doctors and nurses get for on-call service will no longer be included in the bonuses, which are capped at 30% of the salary. Several other demands of the medical personnel will be met by the authorities, thus ending a three-month old conflict. Unions in the public healthcare system have been protesting since March as some of the medical personnel in public hospitals saw their income reduced following the enforcement of the new public payroll law. Although the Government significantly increased doctors’ base salaries, the capped bonuses canceled some of these raises, according to the unions. A warning strike of the medical personnel took place on Monday, May 7. editor@romania-insider.com