The conflict between the Ministry of Health and part of the medical collective remains open. Despite the agreement announced by the Department led by Mónica García with the Medical Profession Forum, the doctors' strike has not been called off. Medical professionals face this Monday 16 –until Friday 20– their second week of stoppages. If the agreement does not arrive, the next weeks with scheduled strike are from April 27 to 30, from May 18 to 22, and from June 15 to 19.
From the Ministry of Health they maintained that this theoretical understanding allowed to deactivate the strike and channel the dialogue, but the Medical Strike Committee assures that said agreement “does not exist”. The opposing positions have resulted in a new episode of tension that has been developing in recent weeks and that explains why the strikes called by the medical unions continue despite the government's announcement.
March 5: the Ministry announces an agreement with the Medical Profession Forum
On March 5, the Ministry of Health announced that it had reached an agreement with the Medical Profession Forum, comprising the Collegiate Medical Organization (OMC), the CESM union, the Federation of Spanish Scientific Medical Associations (FACME), the National Conference of Deans of Medical Faculties, and the State Council of Medical Students (CEEM).
The proposal presented by Health included measures regarding professional participation, classification and recognition of arduousness, which would be incorporated into the Framework Statute bill for statutory personnel of health services during its parliamentary processing. According to the Ministry, this would allow “guaranteeing its development with legal backing and in coordination with the autonomous communities”.
Among the points raised was the strengthening of the participation of doctors in the determination of their working conditions through their union representatives, by expanding the functions of the Professional Forum included in the Law on the Regulation of Health Professions (LOPS) and the creation of equivalent bodies in the autonomous communities.
The document also contemplated adapting the Framework Statute to the Spanish Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (MECES), recognizing the arduousness of on-call duties through an additional supplement linked to night work, and studying the possible early retirement in certain healthcare activities.
March 9: Health asks unions to deactivate the strike
Days after the announcement of the agreement, on March 9, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, appealed to the medical unions to resume dialogue and “not to hold patients hostage”, insisting on her intention to deactivate the strike called against the draft Framework Statute.
The minister then recalled that last week they had reached an agreement for dialogue and negotiation with the Medical Profession Forum, a space in which, as she emphasized, “the Strike Committee is represented”.
García defended that “all legally possible demands that can be in the Framework Statute are in the Framework Statute” and regretted that the unions had not presented a counterproposal to avoid the strikes. In her opinion, the medical organizations “insist that the only way is conflict and is the strike”.
The head of Health also pointed out that some of the issues that continue generating friction could be incorporated into other regulations, such as the Law on the Regulation of Health Professions (LOPS), and even proposed opening reforms in the Basic Statute of Public Employees (EBEP) to address the pending demands.
March 13: the Strike Committee denies that an agreement exists
The conflict took a new turn on March 13, when the Medical Strike Committee assured that the Medical Profession Forum and the Ministry of Health had not reached any agreement because "there is no" signed document that reflects that commitment.
The trade union organizations that make up the committee —among them CESM, SMA, Metges de Catalunya, AMYTS, SME and O'MEGA— maintain that what was announced by the Ministry is solely a “proposal for agreement” that the Forum has not considered acceptable.
According to the committee, the content of that proposal is “vague and poor”. Although it mentions some of the collective's demands, they consider that it does so in an “imprecise” way and without including issues they consider essential, such as a Specific Statute for doctors or a voluntary on-call duty model.
In its analysis of the document, the committee states that the proposal is limited to the creation of technical tables provided for in the EBEP, the promotion of a hardship or night work supplement without specific amounts, an adaptation of the professional classification that does not meet its demands, and the possibility of initiating the early retirement process.
The debate about who can negotiate the conflict
One of the main points of friction between the parties is the role of the Medical Profession Forum in the negotiation. The Strike Committee reminds that this body does not have powers to negotiate labor conditions.
Therefore, it insists that any agreement on these issues must take place exclusively between the committee itself and the Ministry of Health or with representatives of the Government with capacity to negotiate.
“Only the unions can call or call off strikes, negotiate the working conditions of the workers and participate in the monitoring tables that verify the fulfillment of the agreements. Everything else is rhetoric,” they have pointed out.
Furthermore, the committee maintains that before the Secretary of State for Health, Javier Padilla, concluded negotiations with them, there was an open channel of dialogue to close an agreement. According to their version, those conversations were interrupted because the agreement reached with the unions of the Negotiation Scope of the Framework Statute included the commitment not to negotiate with the Strike Committee.
The response of the Ministry and the current situation
That same March 13, Minister Mónica García sent a new letter to the Strike Committee in which she holds the trade union organizations responsible for “breaking the principle of good faith and the purpose of dialogue and negotiations” by maintaining the call for strikes.
In that letter, the minister insisted that the agreement with the Medical Profession Forum was reached “with knowledge and participation” of the Committee and that “it represented the opportunity to maintain dialogue, avoid the doctors' strike and de-escalate the conflict”.
García also recalled that the Ministry has held meetings with the trade union organizations during the last year, both in the Negotiation Scope and in more than 25 specific meetings with members of the Strike Committee, and stated that during that period different pre-agreements were reached that did not translate into a reduction of the conflict.
The stoppages continue and there are more foreseen calls
Despite this exchange of positions, medical unions have decided to maintain the strike. Doctors across the country face a new week of strikes with the aim of showing their rejection of the Framework Statute agreed between the Ministry and several trade union organizations and demanding their own regulation that reflects the particularities of the medical profession.
In addition, medical unions have organized rallies and demonstrations in different autonomous communities. In Madrid, for example, the AMYTS union has called a series of protest acts that began on Monday morning with a demonstration from the Congress of Deputies to the Ministry of Health.