Warning strikes at the Helios clinics

Strike: Doctors and staff of the Helios clinics are laying down work

12/04/2011

Around 160 doctors from the Helios Clinic in Berlin-Buch have laid off their work for over two and a half hours on Monday. With the strike, the doctors wanted to emphasize their demands for a five percent salary increase and a better compensation of the Saturday service, night service and overtime.

The Marburg Federation had called the doctors of the Helios clinics to a warning strike to accelerate the long-awaited conclusion of a new collective agreement with better salary conditions. As part of the nationwide warning strike at the private Helios clinics 160 doctors of the Helios Clinic Berlin-Buch have laid off for more than two hours on Monday. Part of the scheduled surgery had to be postponed, but the medical care of the patients was guaranteed at all times on the basis of an emergency service agreement with the striking physicians, reports the spokeswoman for the Berlin Helios Clinic, Natalie Erdmann.

Doctors criticize too high economic pressure
With their warning strike, the approximately 160 doctors of the Helios-Klinik Berlin-Buch wanted to strengthen their position in the persistent wage dispute. For a good year, the doctors are waiting for a new collective agreement. But the negotiations have been delayed again and again and could not be successfully concluded. In March, the doctors had terminated the old collective agreement and the board of Helios clinics, Francesco De Meo, in an open letter on the in their view, too high economic pressure. Economic criteria have more weight than the medical needs of patients, the relationship between doctor and patients suffer from the cost pressure of the corporate leadership, so the charge of the Marburger Bund. Because the management of the Helios clinics also had not been willing to make concessions in the direction of the doctors in the context of the tariff dispute, the medical union Marburger Bund was forced by its own information to the current strike call.

A total of 1,200 doctors join the warning strike
At the Helios Clinic Berlin-Buch on Monday morning between 8 o'clock and 10.30 o'clock around 160 physicians followed the strike call of the medical union. However, the patient's emergency care was always guaranteed, said Uwe Scholz from the Berlin regional association of the Marburger Bund. Pediatric surgery as well as the treatment of cancer patients and Emil von Behring's clinic in Zehlendorf, which is also part of the Fresenius Group, were even completely excluded from the warning strike, according to Uwe Scholz. All in all, the warning strike at Helios-Klinikum Berlin-Buch ended one hour earlier than initially planned, the representative of the Doctors' Union said further. The Marburger Bund had called the physicians of the 63 Helios hospitals and 29 medical care centers for the warning strike across Germany, but as much support as in the Helios Clinic Berlin-Buch did not learn the medical union at all locations of private Helios clinics. For example, in the Helios clinics in Idstein and Bad Schwalbach only nine of the 25 physicians have joined the warning strike. At the Helios Clinic in Erfurt, at least 70 doctors followed the strike call of the Marburger Bund. Altogether, according to the doctors' union, around 1,200 doctors participated in the warning strike.

Doctors' Union calls for linear salary increase of five percent
The medical union Marburger Bund hopes the warning strikes to increase the pressure on the management of the private Helios clinics in the current collective bargaining conflict. The Marburger Bund demands a linear salary increase of five percent for the doctors of the Helios hospitals belonging to the Fresenius Group. In addition, the Doctors' Union advocates higher compensation for night services, Saturday services and overtime. At the night services, the doctors are currently receiving a surcharge of 1.25 euros per hour, but the physicians require an additional fee of 25 percent of the regular hourly wage. However, the management of the Fresenius Group has so far only promised to increase the remuneration of medical staff by 1.7 percent in collective bargaining.

Strike call for nursing and administrative staff
But the collective bargaining conflict affects not only the doctors but also the other employees of Helios-Kliniken. Therefore, the union Verdi called on Wednesday in 17 Helios clinics to strike Thus, for the nursing and administrative staff of the Helios Clinic Berlin-Buch on Wednesday between 6.30 and 8.30 clock a work stoppage planned and in the hospital Emil von Behring in Zehlendorf of 13.00 to 15.00. With the strike, Verdi also wants to give more weight to workers' demands for higher pay, night service charges and stand-by pay - even before the start of the next bargaining round on 18 April. Overall, the demands of the union for the Fresenius Group would bring about an increase in personnel costs of around seven percent. (Fp)

Also read:
Doctors at Helios clinics in warning strike
Warning strike at HELIOS Hospital
Billing fraud at the Schwerin Helios Clinic?

Picture: Günter Havlena