The Government plans to approve this Tuesday in the Council of Ministers the new Framework Statute of healthcare personnel, according to what elDiario.es has reported this afternoon, at a time of tension with the medical unions, which maintain their demands and have threatened to call for an indefinite strike in September.
The text was agreed upon by the Ministry of Health with UGT, CCOO, CSIF, and Satse, but the organizations that specifically represent the medical professionals have distanced themselves from the agreement and demand their own negotiation for doctors.
The approval of the project will mean its transfer to the Congress, where parliamentary processing will begin. The Executive will have to seek support to push the regulation forward, which may be modified through amendments during its passage through the Cortes.
Doctors demand their own statute
The main open conflict affects the medical union organizations, which demand that their working conditions be negotiated in a specific and differentiated scope.
Among their demands are a specific professional classification and changes in the workday, including the implementation of 35 weekly hours. They also question the current model of on-call duties and demand improvements in their remuneration and working conditions.
The conflict intensified during the summer after several months of mobilizations. The medical unions warned that they could call for an indefinite strike starting in September if Health continued the processing of the Framework Statute without addressing their demands.
The organizations even called for the resignation of the Minister of Health, Mónica García, and asked the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to intervene to try to unblock the negotiation.
Health defends that the communities have the competencies
The Ministry maintains that a good part of the demands raised by the doctors corresponds to the autonomous communities, which are the administrations responsible for managing health services.
The Framework Statute will establish, on the other hand, the basic framework of the working conditions of the statutory personnel of the National Health System.
Among the modifications contemplated in the text is the reduction of mandatory on-call duties from 24 to 17 hours, as well as a maximum workday of 45 weekly hours and the calling of competitive exams every two years.
Health maintains that these measures represent an improvement over the currently applicable framework and maintains its intention to bring the project to Parliament.