The unions SATSE, CCOO, UGT, CSIF, CESMCV-SAE, and Intersindical Salut, who represent workers in the public health system, have rejected the Decree Law on comprehensive healthcare of the Valencian Community for “unilaterally modifying the working conditions of Health personnel such as mobility, selection of personnel or grade progression without establishing a negotiation” which is expected to be mandatory.

For these unions, which sent a joint statement this week, “the extraordinary and urgent need” to approve these modifications through a Decree Law of the Valencian executive by the Ministry of Health directed by Minister Marciano Gómez would not be justified.

According to UGT, the Minister of Health, Marciano Gómez, has been announcing in the press for months his intention to modify the health map and the decree on positions that are difficult to fill, so “he has had more than enough time to open the process of corresponding negotiation”.

The union organisations think that the reason why the minister would have opted for this extraordinary route is to “go backwards in labour rights, stealing the right to collective bargaining with the legitimate representatives of the workers, as well as subtracting the capacity for parliamentary control in the preparation of the rules”.

For this reason, the unions of the Sectoral Table have requested the withdrawal of the Decree Law and the opening of a negotiation process with full guarantees.

Among the first agreed actions include the request for intervention to the Ombudsman and a request for an urgent meeting with the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, and with the parliamentary groups of Les Corts. They are also planning to call a rally in front of the Palau de la Generalitat on March 5 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

As the Ministry reported, “this rule is intended to guarantee the right to comprehensive health protection, in the face of the increasing difficulties encountered in filling positions in certain health specialties in some health departments, especially in areas geographically distant from large urban centres”.

In this way, the decree law aims to provide a solution to one of the main challenges facing Valencian healthcare, which is the shortage of professionals in the health departments of Vinaròs, Requena, Elda, Orihuela and Torrevieja, as well as in the basic health zones of Ademuz, Chelva and Titaguas.