Government prepares legislation to keep some nurses at work

Urgent care would be excluded from industrial action

print this

The government is proposing legislation to mitigate the impact of possible industrial action by the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy), which is threatening to organise a mass resignation as of the 19th of this month to back demands for higher pay.
     The aim of the bill under preparation is to secure urgent treatment necessary to keep patients alive. Excluded from the action would be activities such as emergency room treatment, intensive care units, and treatment of premature babies and support services such as laboratories and x-ray examinations.
     The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health calculates that the bill would exclude no more than ten per cent of the 12,700 nurses who have signed up for the mass resignation campaign.
     
A mediation board set up to seek a solution to the dispute has been given a tight schedule in order to secure passage of the planned legislation. The board is expected to come up with a proposed solution by Thursday morning.
     If no solution comes by then, the government will discuss the proposal for legislative change securing urgent care at its meeting on Thursday.
     Another reason for the tight schedule is that possible legislative action would require a full week of handling in Parliament; if the legislation is to be in force by the November 19th deadline, it needs to be brought before Parliament on Friday this week, and MPs are expected to work throughout the weekend.
     
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health does not want to comment on the possible legislative change; it first wants to see if the mediation board comes up with a proposal by Thursday morning.
      Helsingin Sanomat was not able to reach Minister of Social Services Paula Risikko (Nat. Coalition Party) for comment.
     Top officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health met with Tehy leaders just under two weeks ago. At that time the ministry appealed to the union to voluntarily exclude treatment from the labour dispute whose neglect could endanger the lives or health of the patients.
     
Two weeks ago the Commission for Local Authority Employers in Finland asked the government to impose restrictions on the action by Tehy. Similar limits were placed on health care strikes in 1995, 1998, and 2001.
     However, the threatened action is not a traditional strike: Tehy feels that technically resigning, rather than going on strike, exempts the nurses from obligations to maintain any services.
     The mediation board, chaired by Archiatre Risto Pelkonen, continued its efforts to find a solution to the dispute late into the night on Monday.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mediation board begins efforts to reach settlement in labour dispute between nurses and municipal employers (1.11.2007)
  Only a couple of hundred nurses withdraw resignations (30.10.2007)
  Labour market experts doubt nurses will get pay hikes they want (22.10.2007)
  Looming labour conflict would affect paediatrics, maternity, and surgery in Helsinki area (18.10.2007)
  Ministry: Nurse resignations could cost lives (25.10.2007)
  Health care workers threaten mass resignation in labour dispute (10.10.2007)
  Public approval increases for nurses over labour dispute (5.11.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat