The cabinet “can prepare for actions” if there is no additional money for raising salaries for healthcare staff, says CNV. The union is thus responding to an interview with health care minister Conny Helder in the professional journal Zorgvisie.
The cabinet has earmarked seven billion for the so-called OVA system: the government contribution to the development of labor costs. Unions want the government to make more money available to raise wages for healthcare workers, such as nurses and carers. The minister does not think this is necessary, she said earlier this summer. In the interview with Zorgvisie, Helder says on Friday that “the repair of incomes” can be further arranged within the collective labor agreement negotiations.
She also believes that a solution can be found in scaling healthcare staff in the right way with, for example, a higher vocational education. She calls it “important” that “if you have been trained as a professional nurse, that you also have an HBO position that is valued at HBO. I really want to encourage the social partners to do something about that.”
Workload
CNV does not agree with this reasoning. According to the union, the minister “forgets” that higher scaling does cost extra money. Chairman of CNV Care and Welfare Gaby Perin-Gopie. “Wages in healthcare are structurally up to 9 percent lower than in the market, while the workload there is enormous. This pay gap becomes even more painful in this time of inflation of about 11 percent. Working in care increasingly means living in poverty.”
And that while there was suddenly extra money for care in corona time, CNV emphasizes. “For example, the GGDs can offer unqualified temporary workers hourly wages that are not even included in the salary scales of qualified carers. There are really limits to how you can offend people.”
Extra money
The union wants extra money and if that is not forthcoming, actions will follow. That will not go “in the traditional way”, such as with protests. Anyway, a spokeswoman for CNV cannot yet say on Friday. “But we have to make visible that the limit has been reached.”
“The cabinet does not intend to take additional measures on top of the seven billion,” said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in response to CNV’s criticism. “Every year we allocate money for the OVA. That amount increases with the average wage increase. We think that’s a neat thing to do,” says the spokesperson. The OVA is now estimated at seven billion.