Government introduces legislation to limit planned mass resignations of nurses

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The Finnish government submitted a proposal to Parliament on Friday for legislation that would keep part of nurses at work, even if the intended industrial action threatened by the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) starts on November 19th.
      Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko (National Coalition Party) calculates that the bill would exclude no more than approximately ten per cent of the 12,700 nurses who have signed up for the mass resignation campaign.
      According to some parliamentary sources, the proposed bill states that the hospital districts could start already today - Friday - making lists of the units and numbers of nurses who would be excluded from the industrial action under penalty of fines.
     
The hospital districts are tasked with evaluating which units and how many nurses would be needed to secure urgent treatment necessary to keep patients alive.
      Urgent treatment would include for example baby deliveries, treatment of premature babies, emergency room treatment, cancer treatment, and dialysis.
      If a settlement is reached in the dispute between Tehy and municipal employers, the government will withdraw the bill without delay.
     
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen submitted to Parliament a Prime Minister's statement on the situation on Thursday, saying that the proposal has to be made as there is no certainty that a settlement will be reached before the November 19th deadline.
      So far, the mediation board set up to resolve the threatened industrial action has failed to reach any settlement on the dispute. Vanhanen confirmed that the parties to the conflict remain far apart while hardly any progress has been made during the talks. Moreover, no mediation proposal can be expected any time soon.
      While admitting that the new law would not resolve the problem of an impending crisis in the health care sector, Vanhanen noted that it would nevertheless ease the most severe consequences of the industrial action.
      The prime minister was referring to the evaluations voiced by certain health care specialists that patients could die within the first hours of the threatened stoppage.
     
However, opposition parties were not convinced by PM Vanhanen's arguments.
      Eero Heinäluoma, the current Chairman of the Finnish Social Democratic Party, announced that they would not support any "coercive measures" which would oblige nurses to come to work under penalty of fines.
      Moreover, the Left Alliance decided already prior to the Prime Minister's statement that the party would not back the new law, as the government could resolve the problem with money.
      The True Finns Party will take up the same stand, said Timo Soini, the Chairman of True Finns.
      The Christian Democrats have not decided as yet whether or not they will support the bill. Chair Päivi Räsänen, a member of the Social Affairs and Health Committee, commented that she would still need "an answer to many questions".


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nearly 13,000 nurses ready for mass resignation (15.10.2007)
  Government prepares legislation to keep some nurses at work (6.11.2007)
  Mediation to continue in nurses´ labour dispute (8.11.2007)

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