Bashkir doctors make a public announcement about the beginning of « Italian strike. Frame
For the fourth day in the Bashkir Ishimbay, the «Italian strike» of medical workers of the Central District Hospital continues. Doctors, paramedics, and ambulance drivers are demanding higher salaries—here they barely reach 29,000 rubles a month ($383)—and a reduction in the workload created by the unresolved issue of a shortage of personnel. Now, according to doctors, 3 people work at 10 ambulance positions in Ishimbay, and 31 people work at 59 paramedic positions.
In total, 45 medical workers take part in the strike.
From the statement about the beginning of the strike
“We work in the most difficult conditions, each employee of our department, in fact, works“ for himself and for that guy. <…> We conscientiously fulfill our official duties, but our professional pride does not allow us to watch how our fellow citizens are deprived of emergency medical care. Instead of the two doctors required by law, one team works! We are actually being forced to violate the standards of medical care,” the strike statement reads. The «Italian strike», on the other hand, implies the exclusive following of instructions:
work with the patient for as long as the time allotted by the standards, that is, from 20 to 40 minutes, painstakingly fill out the documents. The only thing that could really run counter to the aspirations of the hospital management was the refusal of the strikers from internal part-time work, and even that with the note: “In order to fulfill the previous amount of work, the employer has the right to offer paramedics and doctors work in accordance with Art. 153 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation with payment of at least double the amount.”
And that is why the decision of the head doctor Valery Shapochkin to dismiss paramedics Ramil Razyapov, Vera Vysogorets and Albina Abdrakhmanova looked even more unexpected for the strikers.
Even the formal reason for the dismissal of Vysogorets and Abdrakhmanova sounds unusual: they were accused of not showing up for work on their day off, February 5.
Abdrakhmanovatold Novaya Gazeta that on that day she received a call from the personnel department of the Ishimbay Central District Hospital and asked why she was not at her workplace, to which Abdrakhmanova replied that she should not be there, because she works at a different time according to the schedule. After this conversation, she was called to the hospital, where the head physician told Abdrakhmanova that he had sent her a notice of a call to work by Russian Post. When asked by Abdrakhmanova, where she signed that she agreed to go to work on a day off, she was given an order to dismiss.
— We have never been called to work by the Russian Post. I was at the post office, they told me that no letters had been sent to my name in the last seven days,” says Abdrakhmanova. It's very hard for me to accept being fired. I love my job, I can't imagine myself anywhere else.
Instead of the two doctors required by law, one team works. Doctors themselves consider this a violation of the standards and quality of services provided. Photo: Vkontakte
Vera Vysogorets told a similar story to Novaya Gazeta. On Saturday, her day off, the woman received a call from the hospital and was informed that she had «skipped» her shift. After a short argument, she was called to the personnel department «to sort out the situation.» Vysogorets was told that the day before she allegedly received a call from the hospital and was warned about going to work, and that a notification about this was also sent to her by mail.
— According to the Labor Code, I must give written consent to go to work on a day off, but no one informed me about it. I was told that I missed work, on this basis I was fired. The night before, I received a call from an unknown number, from the numbers I assumed that the phone was connected with the hospital. But on the other end of the line they were silent when I tried to find out who was calling, ”says Vysogorets.
— When I asked where the notice sent to me by the Russian Post was, because I had not seen it, the head physician said that he was not responsible for the work of the Russian Post.
Ramilya Razyapova< /strong>who, among other things, is the chairman of the cell of the medical trade union «Action», was fired for a different reason — «due to the lack of a defibrillator on field trips on the night shift.» As Razyapov himself told Novaya Gazeta on the night of February 4-5, he actually used a portable defibrillator, which was given to him by the previous shift, due to the fact that the stationary defibrillator was «on charge.»
Employees of the Action trade union and the dismissed paramedics themselves believe that the dismissals are directly related to the strike.
— The dismissal procedure was violated even formally legally, it is illegal. Abdrakhmanova and Vysogorets were fired for «truancy», although they had no shifts in their main work schedule on February 5. The employer argues his decision by the fact that he allegedly issued an order in accordance with Article 113 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation on attracting employees to work on a day off. At the same time, the head physician told the paramedics that the order had been sent by the Russian Post, although Abdrakhmanova, for example, was at the workplace until the evening of February 4, where she could have been handed the document in person. Razyapov, in turn, was fired for the fact that the stationary defibrillator, which is usually located in the ambulance, «was on charge», and he [Razyapov] used a portable one instead. This cannot be considered a one-time gross violation of labor discipline. To dismiss three very experienced and competent health workers in the face of a recognized shortage of personnel is a strange decision. We believe that the real reason for these dismissals is that Abdrakhmanova, Razyapov and Vysogorets are the most active union members in the hospital, they talk to the media, they make video messages. They are the core of the collective that started the “Italian strike,” says Anton Orlov, regional coordinator of the Action trade union.