The representative of the Generalitat in the delegated human resources commission of the interterritorial council of the National Health Service has proposed an improvement in the professional categories of nurses and other health professions, which must involve salary increases. According to the proposal, nursing staff would be placed at the same professional level as doctors.
The approach was announced yesterday by the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, in the middle of the Catalan nursing strike called by Infermeres de Catalunya, a minority union. The stoppage has had little impact on the system, but it has significantly affected the primary care centers of the ICS, with a follow-up of 38% on Wednesday, 15% on Thursday and almost 23% yesterday. The nurses held a demonstration in Barcelona yesterday, which proceeded along Diagonal (where it caused a traffic collapse) and ended at the Health headquarters, with the participation of around 2,500 professionals.
Coinciding with the start of the march, in an appearance at the ministry, Balcells showed his understanding of the nurses’ claims. In his opinion, the discomfort of the collective does not respond only to a question of money, but also to “a lack of recognition, of fatigue, to a more professional question that is accompanied by the historical claim to have a professional category in the level of the academic category”.
Since the unification of university education in Europe 13 years ago, nurses obtain a graduate degree like doctors instead of a diploma as before, but in the Spanish civil service the professional levels have always been maintained: doctors they are above nurses, nutritionists or physiotherapists.
The councilor will raise this claim at the next bilateral meeting, still without a date, that he will have with the new Minister of Health, Mónica García. A measure that does not exclusively affect nursing, which claims to advance from professional level A2 to A1. The administrators of the system claim a new category of health administrators, the senior technicians want to advance from level C1 to B, and the TCAIs (nursing assistants), from C2 to C1.
These measures, which have been incorporated into the recently signed collective agreement of the Catalan Health Institute with the endorsement of 13 of the 15 union representatives (all except the two from Catac), mean pay increases for all of these collectives. However, the professional classification of public employees is the responsibility of the State.
Balcells is confident that a bilateral negotiation with the Government – a negotiation which he equated to that of the amnesty process – can defuse the situation. “The new minister has entered with enthusiasm, she has a long experience of confrontation in the Community of Madrid with the model of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, which is antagonistic to ours”, he affirmed.
On the other hand, the councilor undertook to immediately activate working groups for the different professional categories within the harmonization table of the Siscat staff agreements (concerted healthcare) and the ICS.
As a measure to mitigate the discomfort of nursing, he also announced that he will intensify the dialogue with the regional professional associations, the Council of Colleges of Catalonia and the various scientific associations. “The bottom of the matter is the lack of social recognition”, he said, and admitted the wear and tear of the profession after the pandemic and the cuts.
In the manifesto that was read in front of the ministry at the end of the demonstration, the nurses denounce a “repeated contempt”: “Our profession has evolved at the pace of the needs of the population and the system, as we have also evolved in the training field. We have been graduates for more than a decade, with academic qualifications equivalent to psychologists or other professionals classified in category A1”.
