Paramedic: Medical workers were deceived, minister must resign

Minister of healthcare Vasili Zharko promised to raise salaries for medical workers this autumn.

Paramedics were disappointed when they saw their pay slips in October.

Healthcare minister Vasili Zharko promised in June that salaries for health professionals would be raised significantly.

“We need to calculate our capabilities. The holiday season starts in July. We can raise salaries now, but the growth won't be as significant as it could be in autumn. We will increase wages in autumn. They will be significantly higher than now,” the minister said.

Vasili Zharko said in an interview with BelaPAN that wages would rise by autumn by an average of 23% for Belarusian doctors and by 21% for other healthcare workers.

Aliaksandr Valchalin, a paramedic with 30-year experience and member of the Electronics Trade Union, says if it came true.

“Zharko said that we would get decent wages in three months. But we received only 100,000 ($10) more in October. If the minister thinks it is a decent salary, it's worth laughing. People were really upset when they saw their pay slips. They didn't expect they could be deceived so dishonestly. People in all hospitals are angry,” Aliaksandr Valchalin, who works in Minsk and Zhodzina, says.

“Medical workers expected that wages would rise by at least 500,000 rubles. Paramedics work extra hours. The work is very hard, especially in Minsk. You work from early morning till night and have only 10-15 minutes to have lunch. It hard both physically to carry a stretcher and psychologically, because you arrive at crowded places and you need to bring a person to senses and calm him down. People believed the minister and hoped for an increase in wages. If the minster gives promises and does not fulfill them, he must resign. It's strange that official trade unions of medical workers of the Trade Union Federation say nothing about it.”