France’s health workers given huge pay rises

Special Desk

While healthcare workers fight on the frontline against the COVID-19 and demand for better facilities come from across the globe the French government has decided to give pay rises worth €8bn to its health workers.
The government has hailed their role in fighting coronavirus.

The deal was signed with trade unions on Monday after seven weeks of fraught negotiations. Health workers have been revered as heroes during the pandemic with regular displays of public appreciation.

But they wanted more than recognition and have held protests to demand pay rises and better funding for hospitals. Some demonstrators were fined for breaking social-distancing rules. More than 200,000 infections and 30,000 deaths have been recorded in France, one of Europe’s worst-hit countries.

Now the government has reached an agreement on pay that will see the wages of health workers rise by €183 a month on average. The agreement, which most trade unions have signed up to, was hailed by the new French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, as a “historic moment for our health system”.

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“This is first of all recognition of those who have been on the front line in the fight against this epidemic,” Castex said at a signing ceremony.

“It’s also a way of catching up the delay for each and every one – including perhaps myself – has their share of responsibility.”

Most of the pay-rise package will cover the wages of nurses, care workers and non-medical staff. Some – around €450m – has been reserved for doctors who work exclusively in the public sector.