The Ministry of Health and the Strike Committee will sit down again this Monday, June 1, to resume talks on the Framework Statute, after the request for a meeting made by the Director General of Professional Planning, Miguel Ángel Máñez, as the medical union organizations reported this Friday.
The unions have reiterated that they will attend "as many meetings as necessary as long as there is a real will for change," something they claim not to see in the department, to which they attribute "little room for maneuver and interest" in putting forward proposals that respond to the collective's demands.
In their opinion, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, is "a hostage to her own agreements," given that her team has continued with the processing of the Statute draft agreed upon with the unions in the Negotiation Sphere, who this week have refused to introduce modifications to the document that could represent a "step backward."
Therefore, they have indicated that "there is not much room to trust in a solution to the conflict" and have warned that these meetings will "hardly" lead to the de-escalation of the protests already planned, including a new week of strike scheduled between June 15 and 19.
Likewise, they have stated that they "understand" the "deep discontent" of the professionals after more than a year of mobilizations and have shown their support for those who have chosen to suspend extraordinary and voluntary activity in their services until the current situation is resolved.
Among the main demands of the Strike Committee are the approval of a specific Statute for doctors and physicians, in line with their training and responsibility; the creation of their own negotiation sphere, with effective legal guarantees and without dependence on other tables; the implementation of a 35-hour working week, with overtime recognized, paid, and counted for retirement purposes; a balanced professional classification, adjusted to the training level and clinical responsibility; and a flexible and penalty-free retirement model that takes into account the arduousness of medical practice.