Healthcare workers protest across France in push for better pay

Doctors, nurses and other hospital staff have staged protests across France, demanding pay hikes and budget increases for a healthcare system that was pushed to the edge by the coronavirus pandemic.

The rallies came on Tuesday as the government prepares for Friday’s wrap-up of weeks of talks with health workers on hospital overhauls in response to the crisis.

Employees have long complained about insufficient staff and low pay that prompts doctors and nurses to take jobs at private clinics instead. That issue led to a series of strikes over the past year.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised “significant” pay increases when kicking off the talks last month, and officials have already put an additional 6.3 billion euros ($7bn) on the table.

But that amount falls far short for many employees. They say French healthcare workers are already among the lowest paid among the group of developed economies in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, because of years of budget cuts.

“They’ve promised six billion euros ($6.7bn) but I’m still waiting to see,” said Louis Rios, a psychiatric nurse in the Essonne department south of Paris, during a march in the French capital.

“We want a significant gesture, and now – not in three years,” he said.

The SUD-Sante union chief, Jean-Marc Devauchelle, has called on the government to boost take-home pay across the sector by 300 euros ($337) a month, a move that would cost about 14 billion euros ($15.7bn).

“We need acts that live up to the gratitude,” Philippe Martinez of the CGT union said at the Paris demonstration – a reference to the nightly rounds of applause for hospital staff during the height of the coronavirus crisis.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has made social justice a key theme for the final two years of his term, is expected to announce measures resulting from the talks as soon as next week.