TUs to debate government offer on Tuesday

Doctors trade unions are to meet on Tuesday to make a final decision regarding Health Minister Leos Heger’s offer of an additional two billion crowns for salary hikes if doctors withdraw their resignations and desist from further destabilizing protests. The government and trade union leaders are still at loggerheads over some of the conditions of such a deal. Trade unions have demanded guarantees that all doctors who resigned in support of the protest against low wages should be allowed to return, but hospital directors have said they intend to make their own decisions. The prime minister has also expressed the view the money, which is to be acquired by scrapping 10,000 non-essential hospital beds, should not be used only for salary hikes.