Unions in Poland have continued their protests over the government’s healthcare policies. They held a demonstration in October 2012 to protest against forced self-employment in the healthcare sector, chronic understaffing problems and the commercialisation of hospitals. More than 5,000 healthcare workers, joined by miners and car workers, took part in the protest which coincided with an international conference in Warsaw to discuss Europe’s public healthcare problems.
Background
Disputes over the chronically low wages of nurses and midwives have become common in Poland over the past decade (PL0707019I). Opposition to government policy has been further fuelled since 2008 by the healthcare restructuring initiatives implemented by the Civic Platform (PO) government. These measures paved the way for the introduction of ‘lean management’ in public hospitals by only allowing local authorities to apply for government money to repay the debts of public hospitals if they drew up restructuring plans and put them into effect. The result of this was that outsourcing and subcontracting of some hospital services became commonplace and the transformation of hospitals into businesses was encouraged (PL0808029I).
Growing trade union concerns
Trade unions have said that these restructuring policies, combined with low wages in the sector and the migration of nurses abroad, have contributed to the deterioration of the quality of healthcare services in Poland.
On 14 September 2012, the All-Poland Union of Nurses and Midwives (OZZPiP) organised nationwide protests in all 14 regional capital cities. Besides again raising the issue of low wages, the protests also focused on issues such as:
- raising the retirement age for nurses to 67 in line with a national policy ratified on 1 June 2012 (PL1206019I);
- the bypassing of established minimal staffing requirements in hospitals, which reportedly results in work intensification and 30% understaffing in some cases;
- requiring nurses and other medical staff to become self-employed as a way of cutting wage costs.
On 5 October 2012, the Trade Unions Forum (FZZ), to which OZZPiP is affiliated, sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, opposing the further marketisation of healthcare services.
Trade unions meet Prime Minister
On 4 October 2012, representatives of OZZPiP met Prime Minister Tusk, Minister of Health Bartosz Arłukowicz and Minister of Labour and Social Policy Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz to discuss the issues raised by trade unions.
The government’s representatives emphasised the need for social dialogue with OZZPiP. They also confirmed that a governmental order on the minimal norms for the employment of nurses and midwives would be enforced from 1 January 2013 and should solve the problem of understaffing. However, other unions demands, including those related to the retirement age and halting the expansion of subcontracting in hospitals, did not receive support.
Protest coincides with conference in Warsaw
On 5 October 2012, OZZPiP and a radical left-wing trade union Free Trade Union August ’80 (WZZ Sierpień 80) organised a joint protest in Warsaw. The demonstration took place on the fifth anniversary of the White Village protests in June 2007 during which doctors and nurses went on strike for two months over pay demands (PL0707019I). It coincided with the fourth conference organised to discuss European healthcare, entitled ‘In defence of public healthcare’, which opened in Warsaw on 6 October 2012. Attending were representatives from OZZPiP, WZZ Sierpień 80, Poland’s Feminist Think-Tank, and academic experts and trade union delegates from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and the United Kingdom.
The demonstration was also part of a European-wide action week against the dismantling of public services and the privatisation of healthcare organised by a network of trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) based in France, the Committees for the Defence of Local Hospitals and Maternity Units. An estimated 5,000 healthcare workers took part, joined by miners and workers from the automotive industry.
Commentary
It is worth noting that the protests were organised by FZZ’s largest affiliate, OZZPiP, which has around 80,000 members, but they were not supported by two other trade union confederations, the Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union Solidarity (NSZZ Solidarność) and the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ). Instead, OZZPiP built a coalition with WZZ Sierpień 80 and joined an international network of left-wing organisations opposing the privatisation of healthcare services in Europe. This move might indicate the further radicalisation of OZZPiP whose demands have not been properly addressed by successive governments in Poland over the past few years.
Adam Mrozowicki, Institute of Public Affairs, University of Wrocław