Takes place at 00.01 on December 5th national strike of healthcare personnel: doctors, nurses, health managers belonging to the Anaao Assomed, Cimo-Fesmed and Nursing Up unions will protest for 24 hours against government policies on healthcare and in particular against reduction of pensions of the sector established as part of the 2024 Maneuver. The title of the inter-union statement announcing the strike is emblematic: "From heroes to invisible, the government turns its back on doctors".
National strike of doctors and nurses on 5 December: all the information
The strike will be national and will last 24 hours. From 00.01 on Tuesday 5 December to 23.59 on the same day. According to forecasts membership will be massive, with problems especially in hospitals where booked and scheduled activities will not be guaranteed, but only essential services such as emergency and first aid. Ordinary activities are at risk, especially clinics and visits. The doctors' unions Anaao Assomed and Cimo-Fesmed and the nurses' unions Nursing Up represent over half of Italian doctors and a large part of nurses.
The culmination of the protest is scheduled for 11.30 on Tuesday, when a demonstration will begin in Rome, in Piazza Santi Apostoli. sit-in against the 2024 maneuver and in defense of the National Health Service. Other events are planned in every city and company. In Turin the workers will gather in front of the Region, in Bologna in via Albertoni, in Palermo there will be an assembly at the Medical Association and so on.
National strike 5 December: demands from doctors and nurses
Among the demands of the unions are hiring new doctors and nursing staff, the tax relief of the specific medical and healthcare allowance to guarantee an increase in the salaries of all managers, as well as adequate resources for the renewal of the employment contract, withdrawal of pension cuts, decriminalization of the medical act. What sparked the protest was above all the reduction in pensions established by the measure.
At a meeting held last week, the government made the move to the unions three proposals to resolve the pension issue and review the tightening: safeguarding the allowance for those who retire having reached the old age requirements, a "gradual" cut for those who choose the advance and maintenance of the rights acquired on 31 December 2023. The executive explained that it is Still “working” to revise Article 33 which cuts the pension rates of some categories (not only doctors, but also healthcare workers, local authority employees, nursery school teachers and bailiffs), underlining however that budget constraints must be respected. Responses which, however, were not considered sufficient by the trade union associations.
As it stands today, article 33 of the Budget Law cuts the pension of 732 thousand public workers in twenty years, including 55.600 doctors, reducing the rates of return on contributions paid between 1981 and 1995. A cut that would lead to staff currently in service losing between 5% and 25% of their annual pension allowance, to be multiplied by their average life expectancy .
“After yet another economic maneuver, which ignores the needs of health professionals, calls into question their acquired rights, and forgets the needs of public health, the time has come to strike – they declared Pierino Di Silverio, secretary of Anaao Assomed, Guido Quici, president of Cimo-Fesmed, and Antonio De Palma, president of Nursing up -. See you in the square to loudly express all our anger and disappointment."
The crackdown on the pensions of doctors and some categories of state workers "must be cancelled, they are questioning purchasing rights and are worsening the Fornero law". Thus the general secretary of the CGI, Maurizio Landini.
