The unions announce the national mobilization for private healthcare workers: a state of agitation has started, with overtime blocked, to restart negotiations on the Aiop-Aris Contract. For the previous renewal we had to wait fourteen years, however the new wait has already been extended for four years, i.e. since 2020, when with great delay this contract was signed (already expired) to cover the three-year economic period 2016-2018.
The acronyms FP-Cgil, Cisl-Fp and Uil-Fpl, which together opened the state of agitation, therefore called for the suspension of overtime and voluntary returns to service with the skipping of rest days, tools that are requested of workers on a daily basis in an important way, precisely in the face of staff shortages. In the coming weeks, national protest initiatives will be decided, among which strikes will not be excluded.
Workers mobilized in Bergamo
In the province of Bergamo, the acronyms invited the approximately three thousand health workers of the structures present in the area to join the protest: Habilita (Poliambulatorio San Marco in Bergamo, Institute of Neuro-rehabilitation of Zingonia, Faccanoni Hospital in Sarnico), Humanitas (Clinica Gavazzeni and Castelli Clinic of Bergamo), San Donato Group (Bergamo Hospital Institutes: San Marco Polyclinic of Zingonia and Ponte San Pietro Polyclinic), Quarenghi Clinical Institute of San Pellegrino Terme, then the Palazzolo Nursing Home (Institute of the Sisters of the Poor), the San Francesco Clinic (Institute of Capuchin Sisters of Mother Rubatto), the three NephroCare locations in Seriate, Gazzaniga and Trescore, and the three Ferb locations in Trescore, Gazzaniga and Calcinate.
The problems of the sector
«For over four years, workers have been waiting for an even more necessary renewal in light of high inflation, which continues to erode wages and purchasing power – he commented Andrea Bettinelli of the FP-CGIL of Bergamo -. The renewal is also vital to adequately valorise the professionalism of a sector that chronically suffers from a shortage of personnel, due to the lack of attractiveness of healthcare professions. Yet, together with their colleagues in the public sector, private healthcare workers guarantee the care and health of the population, in an accreditation regime by the regions which leads them to also provide services for the National Health Service”.
Since the previous renewal, we have also experienced the second part of the Covid emergency, during which, as specified by the unions, the staff continued to demonstrate self-sacrifice and sacrifice, which, however, according to them, did not find the right recognition in economic terms and working conditions. Work.
«Given the enormous profits that some private healthcare groups are also having in the Bergamo area, it is more than reasonable for workers to ask for a signal in terms of wages. Historically, then, the signing of the private healthcare contract closely follows that of public healthcare – continued the representative -. This was also the case for the three-year period 2016-2018, but not thereafter. Our request to reach a renewal is among other things supported by the recent opening of negotiations for the 2022-24 validity of the public health sector contract”.
