Staff new merger hospital AZ Ostend is worried: “We don’t know anything yet”

One of them wrote an open letter to the management and this morning about 100 employees came out as a protest during their shift.

Two years after the announcement that Ostend is withdrawing from the merger with AZ Sint Jan in Bruges and opting for a merger with AZ Damiaan, the concern is still great. Carine Debaenst, care assistant Campus Henri Serruys Ostend: “I have written an open letter. As staff of the Serruys hospital, we do not yet know anything about our personnel status. We do not know anything about our shifts, about the employment contract. It is now enough. The staff also van Damiaan does not know how it will work. It is no longer possible that we are left in ignorance like this. Two months from the transition from one hospital to another.”

Soon on November 1, AZ Oostende will really have to start. Tomorrow there will finally be another consultation between the city council, the new hospital management and the unions. Quite late, say the unions. Martine Dewitte, ACV Public Services Ostend: “Finally. The decision to merge dates back to 2021. We have not heard anything in all that time. We understand that this is a complicated and difficult file. For us unions, the staff is important. What is happening What does it mean, is there the promised retention of wages and working conditions? If a position no longer exists, what happens to that person’s wages? These are all questions that have been bothering those people for months. “

Constructive consultation

The unions have been asking for thorough consultations for months, but that never happened, they say. Alexander Haesaert, ACOD West-Vlaanderen: “We hope that things will move forward tomorrow. It has been dragging on for a long time. We are two months before the merger. And there is still no certainty whatsoever about what status people will have , where they work and in what capacity. That is very late.”

The chairman of the new Ostend fusion hospital, mayor Bart Tommelein, and the chairman of the Serruys campus do not want to comment on camera for the time being. They hope for constructive talks tomorrow and say people are worrying needlessly.