“many employees leave because of very low wages”
Part of the staff of the Dijon Bourgogne Private Hospital in Valmy (Côte-d’Or) is on strike this Tuesday, January 3. The employees denounce in particular their working conditions and demand an increase in wages, as well as recruitment.
After the liberal doctors, it is the turn of the nurses, orderlies and other stretcher-bearers to express their discomfort. They were also around fifty, this Tuesday, January 3 in the morning, to meet in front of the Dijon Bourgogne Private Hospital. Part of the staff of the establishment, located in Valmy in Côte-d’Or, was indeed on strike to demand in particular an increase in wages.
“The salary grids do not correspond to our levels of education or our seniority“, assures a caregiver who chose to remain anonymous.”There is a part of the staff who is now at the hourly rate of the SMIC. For example, entry-level nurses have the same salary level as ASHs (hospital services officer, editor’s note) which begins.“
All ASH are at the minimum wage, whether they start or finish.
A nurse from the Dijon Bourgogne Private Hospital
“Very low salaries, that’s the main reason a lot of high performers leave“, adds another employee of the establishment. “Mainly nurses, nursing assistants, stretcher bearers… And it’s very complicated to compensate for these departures.“
“On a need for human resources”
Because in addition to the question of wages, the strikers also alert management to the lack of personnel. “When you have more than 200 operations a day, you shoot in 21 rooms and you find yourself three or four to clean them… it becomes complicated“, deplores an ASH. In addition, the strikers are calling for recruitment – the CGT, it is asking for permanent employment on all vacant or resigning positions.
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“On a need for human resources“, argues Émilie Cruz, CGT union representative. “We work with a lot of temporary and temporary workers, they try to help us as best they can, but they don’t know the service protocols or the doctors’ protocols.“
Things have to change so that we can provide quality care to patients. And to provide quality care, caregivers must do their job well.
Emily Cruz,CGT union representative
Another problem for the trade unionist: the material means. “When we see in the emergency room that we have to double the rooms, that we have more stretchers and that we have to sit people on armchairs… We have more than 10 hours of waiting!“
However, it seems that, on this side at least, the strikers have been heard. At the end of a meeting, the management indeed assured of its intention to invest in additional equipment. The continuation of the strike will be decided tomorrow morning.