Doctors’ union, Health Ministry fail to reach agreement

Doctors’ unions negotiating pay rises with the Ministry of Health failed to reach any agreement on Wednesday after a meeting with minister Leoš Heger. Mr Heger is insisting on a 6.25% rise from January in place of the 10% he negotiated earlier this year. An analysis of January income, he says, will not allow him to provide more, and he plans to make up the remaining percentage during the course of 2012. The unions are demanding the agreed rises as of January and have organised a series of protests to try to hold the ministry to its word. At the beginning of the year, hospital physicians threatened mass resignations if their salaries were not raised to meet Western European standards.