The Health Minister and the Medical Trade Union Association (LOZ) struck a deal on 20 December, preventing the healthcare from spiralling into crisis on 1 January with mass resignations by doctors. Doctors will not resign, but the Government has until February to show progress on the negotiated points or risk a return to the crisis. Long underfunded, with low wages and decrepit facilities and outdated equipment, the public health system is currently suffering from an exodus of qualified medical staff to better paying jobs abroad and in the country's private sector. The crisis has been worsened by spending cuts to help bring the Government budget down. The healthcare union (LOZ) accused the country’s Ministry of Health of escalating the crisis in healthcare ahead of the negotiations that started on December 16.
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For more information, please contact Paul de Beer or Oana Ciuca, De Burcht (Scientific Bureau for the Dutch Trade Union Movement) p.t.debeer@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Mehmet Koksal mkoksal@etui.org. For previous full issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit https://www.etui.org/Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter or consult the archive with all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu.
You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org.