The Ministry of Health has asked the outgoing government to ensure that health workers will get a wage hike next year. The normal procedure would be to leave this decision for the new government but many fear that remaining uncertainty about wage development in the sector (see our October newsletter) would only deteriorate the staffing problems that already exists within the healthcare sector. The World Bank and the European Commission earlier reported that multiple deaths per day could have been prevented if health care in the country would meet normal European standards. Labour shortages in the sector are the main cause of the problem. The Latvian Trade Union of Health and Social Care Employees (LVSADV) therefore has send a letter to the government demanding that they will provide 90 million euro in order to increase healthcare workers' salaries.
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For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers or Sanne van der Gaag, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Willy De Backer wdebacker@etui.org © ETUI