Caregivers and users were invited to a meeting at the Montauban University Hospital this Tuesday, June 7. They demanded the reinstatement of recently ousted colleagues and more generally non-vaccinated staff.
Caregivers from the Montauban hospital and users, around a hundred people in all, interrupted a technical committee on Tuesday morning. They demanded the reinstatement of 13 caregivers dismissed by management. This disputes the validity of their health pass. The demonstrators also demanded the return of their unvaccinated colleagues.
“We took this decision because the management threatens to suspend around sixty caregiversexplains Christophe Couderc, secretary of the CGT departmental union of Tarn-et-Garonne. They have suspended 13 for their vaccination schedule, which they consider incomplete.
“But these people have a valid schemasays the trade unionist. One of the agents, for example, had the Covid two months ago. He has since worked again. He has 4 months to update his pass but management wants to suspend it. A trade unionist whose scheme is valid can no longer exercise or even go to the union office when the law mentions that she has the right, with or without a pass.
The demonstrators demanded the immediate reinstatement of the 13 suspended employees. They are also demanding the return of unvaccinated caregivers. “We forget that they were the ones who went to the box at the start of the epidemic, without protectionrecalls Christophe Couderc. They had no way to protect themselves. And they can’t work. This is unacceptable, especially since it puts patients at risk.”
According to the demonstrators, the management has pledged to review the cases of the 13 people recently suspended. But the demonstrators reserve the right to react again because they believe that the government must reinstate all unvaccinated employees: “an absolute emergency given the critical situation of the public hospital”.
They also want nurses’ salaries to be increased because they fear massive resignations in the coming months and a total collapse of the public health system.
This event takes place in a very tense context. Many area hospitals are having trouble keeping emergency departments open this summer.
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