The May strike of medical professionals suspended for autumn

The strike of medical professionals planned for 17 May 2005 was suspended upon signing of the agreement on medical professionals’ wage increase by all concerned parties.

Since 2002, Lithuania has not faced a single strike. Therefore, talks of the representatives of Lithuanian medical organisations about a possibility of a national level strike by medical professionals won dramatic attention from the public.

On February this year the representatives of Lithuanian medical organisations applied to the superior Lithuanian authorities with a request to assign 5% GDP every year for gradual increase of salaries of medical peofessionals. Otherwise they threatened with a strike.

Though the leadership of the country basically agreed with reasonability of the raised requirements and the fact that the salaries of medical employees in Lithuania are low, they said that the national budget couldn’t afford this and increase medical professionals’ salaries by 50% in 2005.

As a clear answer was not received from the Government of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Vyriausybė, LRV), at the beginning of March 2005 the Lithuanian Trade Union of Health Care Employees (Lietuvos sveikatos apsaugos darbuotojų profesinė sąjunga, LSADPS) and Lithuanian Union of Doctors (Lietuvos gydytojų sąjunga, LGS) published a communication addressed to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health Care requesting for formation of the conciliation commission; medical men threatened declaration of a general strike if no answer is given.

A promise of the LRV to raise doctors’ salaries by about one fourth was dissatisfactory for representatives of the LSADPS and LGS, who passed a decision at the meeting in Vilnius to stage a general strike of medical professionals on 17 May 2005. This decision was supported by some two thirds of Lithuanian health care employees.

The Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania specifies that when a decision is taken to hold a strike in health care institutions/organisation, minimum conditions (services) necessary for meeting the immediate (vital) needs of the society must be ensured. Such minimum conditions (services) shall be determined by the LRV in accordance with its competence, having regard to the opinion of the Tripartite Council of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Trišalė taryba, LRTT). For this purpose, the LRTT considered the elaborated list of the minimal services and principally agreed to it.

As the date of the scheduled strike was coming up, at the meeting held at the end of April 2005 with the leaders of health care institutions and organisations, the executives of the Ministry of Health Care (Sveikatos apsaugos ministerijos, SAM) and the Committee for Health Affairs of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas, LRS) offered to increase the salaries of the medical professionals by 30% with effect from 1 May 2005. Finally, on 3 May 2005 the 'Agreement on the Wage Increase of medical employees' was signed and followed by a decision to suspend the 17 May 2005 strike for autumn. The idea of the strike will be raised repeatedly, unless obligations set in the agreement will be followed. The agreement was signed by the representatives of all the parties concerned: LRS, LRV, Lithuanian Union of the Doctors’ Leadership, Association of National Health Care Institutions, Lithuanian Association of Patients, National Association of University Hospitals, LGS and LSADPS. According to the mentioned agreement, salaries of medical professionals are increased by 28% with effect from 1 May 2005 and gradual wage increase is expected within a period until 2009. A monitoring group is formed to implement and monitor the agreement. This group will make progress reports to all parties of the agreement at least once in three months.

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