Challenges Faced by Healthcare Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
NFU (Nederlandse Federatie van Universitair Medische Centra) is the Dutch observer member of HOSPEEM. NFU represents the eight University Medical Centers (UMCs) in the Netherlands that employs around 70 000 people.
The university hospitals (UMCs) employees will strike again on November 25 if the employers’ organization NFU refuses to discuss the workload and staff shortages. Trade unions FNV (The Federation of Dutch Trade Unions is an national trade union centre in the Netherlands. In addition to member unions, workers in many sectors can join the FNV directly),FBZ, LAD, and CNV announced this on Monday.
It would be the third strike at the university medical centers in a short period.The health workers first went on strike on September 28.
Once again, the participating employees will run on “Sunday shifts,” which means they will only provide emergency care. This includes coronavirus care.
The parties have been unable to agree on a wage increase for staff for some time, and the unions also believe that too little is done about the workload.
At the end of September, the Cabinet announced that extra money would be made available for increasing salaries in the healthcare sector. The employers’ organization wants all unions to come again to discuss how that money will be spent.
Now that the number of coronavirus infections in the Netherlands is increasing, For this reason, both the workload and work complexity have increased for healthcare care workers. It is more important now to finding a solution to this issue.
