There is a danger of a whooping cough epidemic , it could come from Europe or other countries whose immunization calendars we do not know. Let us not forget that quite a few refugees pass through Bulgaria, and we do not know what status they have.
This was said in the Euronews PrimeTime studio by the deputy chairman of the Federation of Health Care Trade Unions, Dr. Plamen Radoslavov.
According to the specialists, the coverage of about 92% for the disease that our country has is sufficient, he also pointed out.
According to Dr. Radoslavov, the reason for the failure of the negotiations between the health care unions and the employers' organizations of the hospitals is stubbornness.
There is a stubbornness on the part of the employer structures to sit at the negotiating table. They demand things that we cannot do and are not obliged to – require analyzes that are not our business and the law does not require it from us.
Dr. Plamen Radoslavov explained that they proposed a project based on simple logic – the minimum wage as of April 1, 2022 was BGN 710. The minimum wage as of January 2024 is BGN 933, an increase of over 31%. We have to look somewhere here for the increase in the salaries of nurses and doctors, because otherwise the orderlies will at some point start receiving almost the same salaries as the doctors, he explained.
If a new Collective Labor Agreement is not signed, a very unpleasant moment will occur, because according to the Law on Medical Institutions and the Law on Health Insurance, after June 1, those hospital institutions that have not reached the minimum wages under the Collective Labor Agreement will begin to receive sanctions . However, the collective labor agreement expired on April 12, so we are currently in a deadlock, commented Dr. Radoslavov.