Several media outlets report that about 50 doctors resigned from their jobs at Asker and Bærum emergency services after wage negotiations with the municipality broke down.
“We have not reached the end of the negotiations, as the municipality has not met our demands.
“Several doctors have therefore submitted their resignations tonight,” Germar Schneider told newspaper Budstikka.
He represents the Norwegian Medical Association trade union in the ongoing negotiations with Bærum municipality.
He negotiates on behalf of more than 90 doctors at the emergency room in Asker and Bærum.
Doctors believe they are underpaid during the corona pandemic and demand a better deal.
Negotiation breakdown
On Friday afternoon, the negotiations broke down, and according to Schneider, more than 50 of the doctors have now submitted their resignation to the municipality.
Municipal director for health and social affairs in Bærum municipality, Grete Syrdal, described the latest offer that the municipality made on Friday afternoon as “very good.”
“The doctors refused,” she told newspaper Aftenposten.
The municipalities believe that the salary requirement from the doctors is too high.
Dispute over sickness benefits
The dispute primarily revolves around sickness benefits related to the ongoing corona pandemic.
The doctors believe they are not secured well enough financially in the event of infection and demand a new, temporary wage agreement adapted to the risk of coronavirus infection.
“As it is now, we do not get paid if we get sick. The agreement that was presented to us had not provided good enough security.
“We believe the demands we have made are reasonable,” Schneider said.
Self-employed
The doctors who have resigned are self-employed doctors paid according to how many patients they treat.
Early in the pandemic, they switched to another wage agreement.
But the agreement does not provide compensation in the event of illness, which is at the core of the ongoing conflict.
As they’re self-employed, the doctors at the emergency room do not have the right to strike.
Therefore, they consider resignations the only means they have after the negotiations fell apart, Budstikka writes.
According to Syrdal, the doctors who have resigned have a four-week notice period.
Thus, there is no acute danger of a shortage of doctors during the Christmas holidays.
The municipality will now spend time figuring out what to do.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
Leave a comment