فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
At a press conference held in Rabat on Tuesday 21 May, the national union coordination for the health sector announced a nationwide strike planned for Wednesday and Thursday in all hospitals in the Kingdom, with the exception of emergency and resuscitation departments. Health professionals are also planning a sit-in on Thursday in front of the Parliament building from 11am.
As part of the programme of action drawn up by the national trade union coordination for the health sector, the hospital services affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection are calling a two-day strike to protest against what they call the government’s ‘mysterious silence’ despite the agreements previously signed guaranteeing material, moral and legal improvements for workers in the sector.
The strike is intended to shed light on the various shortcomings in the sector. The coordination insisted on the need to implement the preliminary agreement of 29 December 2023 and its minutes signed between the Ministry of Health and the trade unions representing the sector by the end of January 2024.
At the conference, the General Secretary of the Syndicat national de la santé publique (FDT), Dr Karim Belmokadem, explained on behalf of the co-ordination body, which comprises 8 unions, that ‘all the minutes of the agreements and proposals made by the unions were forwarded to the President of the Government at the end of January 2024 for a decision on the deadlines for implementing these agreements’.
Despite the programme of demands and the strikes called, the government remains ‘silent, which has aroused the anger of professionals who are wondering about the reasons behind this lack of interaction and this unjustified silence on the part of the government, which has lasted for more than four months’, say the unions.
Mr Belmokadem reiterated the main demands of the coordination, which centre mainly on the preservation of the status of public civil servant. There is also talk of a general increase in the fixed salary of 1,500 dirhams for nurses and health technicians, auxiliary nurses and preparatory nurses, and a general increase in the fixed salary of 1,200 dirhams net for health professionals in the categories of administrative and technical assistants, technicians, writers, transport technicians, health ambulance drivers, odontology assistants, emergency assistants, managers and engineers.
He also pointed out that, in addition to material demands, workers in the sector are complaining about working conditions and promotion, stressing the need to create a new grade for all categories, to organise internal professional competitions and to adopt an optimal formula for calculating allowances, the supervision of medical and pharmacy students and other demands.
At the end of the conference, Touria Boutayeb, a member of the national trade union coordination of the health sector, expressed her regret at the suspension of hospital activities and apologised to the public, saying that the government was responsible for the situation.
