No other option has been left to doctors but to file mass notices, said the Head of the Doctors' Labour Union (LOZ) Peter Visolajský. He made the comment in response to the fact that Finance Minister Igor Matovič announced that he plans no additional negotiations with representatives of doctors. Visolajský insists that the government still has not presented any solutions to some of the demands and the salary hike in and of itself will not solve the problems of the Slovak health care system.
"The offer we have given to the doctors is really, really above standard for these times,” said the Finance Minister. He added that it goes dramatically higher than what anyone else in the state administration was offered. The only exception are nurses, who are set to receive even more in terms of percentage.
In August, Matovič unveiled his proposal of salary hikes for doctors. Under its terms, doctors without an attestation are expected to see their minimum wage coefficient go up from 1.25 to 1.4 times the average wage, whereas doctors with an attestation should see their coefficient stay the same at 2.3 times the average wage. Both groups are to have the number of their years at work taken into account when calculating their salaries.
Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová considers that further negotiations on doctors' salaries are necessary. "It is necessary to provide incentives that will motivate people to stay, but also to recruit new people," she concluded.
Source: TASR
