A fruitful meeting between the union and the department
After a long meeting this Thursday, the Department of Health led by counselor Manel Balcells and the Nurses’ Union of Catalonia have managed to bring positions closer together and put an end to the indefinite strike that the nurses began last December. According to what sources from the union have informed the Europa Press news agency, the meeting with the person in charge of the portfolio has served to agree on improvements in the working conditions of the nursing group, although they have not reached an agreement on the salary supplement that they have demanded since the sector.
Professional requalification, the pending point
The aspect that they have not been able to reach a consensus on is the salary supplement that the nurses were demanding, waiting for the Spanish government to reclassify the professional category of the sector, one of the main demands of the group. The change from going from category A2 – the current one – to category A1 entails economic repercussions and recognition as professionals, but it is the Ministry of Health, headed by Pilar Alegría, who has the power to decide whether or not to do the requalification. Although the nurses have not obtained a salary supplement while the ministry decides whether to make the category change, the Catalan government has committed to prioritizing this requalification request to Madrid in the meeting that Balcells will have next week with the minister.
The achievements of nurses
With the agreement reached today, the Nurses’ Union of Catalonia has achieved the recognition of professionals in the sector as valid figures to act as shift and guard leaders, and that the right to digital disconnection is guaranteed with the creation of a digital disconnection code during 2024. The real needs of the territory’s vehicle fleet will also be analyzed and will be increased according to this evaluation during the first half of this year in order to guarantee the portfolio of home care services of the CAPs of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS). From the union, however, they are not entirely happy with the signed pact, since they consider that they have not achieved all the demands, but “it is a first step.” They justify calling off the strike to “give a break to nursing and the population.”
