Libya has been facing a shortage of workers in the health sector in recent years. As a result of the overwhelming security chaos that has struck it since 2011, and has led to the emigration of some talents outside the country, and the reluctance of foreign workers to come except in small numbers.
The General Syndicate of Physicians in Libya threatened to enter into an open and general strike in all hospitals and health facilities, March 20, and to submit mass resignations; Protest against the unified salary scale, which they consider “unfair.”“.
The head of the Libyan Doctors Syndicate, Muhammad Al-Ghouj, told Sky News Arabia that the General Syndicate of Doctors, along with other medical unions, “totally rejects the unified salary scale, and calls on the competent authorities to quickly re-evaluate it, according to academic qualifications, career progression and seniority, and then implement it to serve the public interest.”“.
Al-Ghouj warned against the tendency of a large number of workers to submit their resignations, after many years of raising demands for raising the salaries of all members of the natural crews without a response from officials..
“we tried again”
The Doctors Syndicate denies the responsibility of workers in the health sector for what will happen in the future, or the threat of the situation with a strike, saying that the Syndicate “sent several warnings to the concerned authorities before resorting to the strike, but no radical solution has been reached to the problem that the sector has been suffering from for years.”“.
Algoj sets out the demands of doctors in detail:
- Activation of Resolution 885 for medical and paramedical personnel.
- Paying dues to workers in the Corona pandemic.
- Considering the medical personnel who died as a result of their actions during the pandemic as martyrs.
- Providing medical insurance for medical and paramedical personnel, teaching allowance, and financial releases for medical and paramedical personnel.
- Providing medical equipment and supplies and a suitable work environment.
- Fighting corruption and advancing the health sector.
“We are exposed to a conspiracy“
As Al-Ghog put it, doctors in Libya “are exposed to a clear conspiracy, so the requests of the members of the union do not stop at financial demands only, but extend to the demand for the need to raise and improve the level of services provided to members of the Libyan community in health institutions that suffer from crises.”“.
The Doctors Syndicate stresses that combating this “conspiracy” that leads to the emigration of doctors abroad and the submission of mass resignations, is in improving the work environment in the sector and responding to the aforementioned demands..
Al-Ghouj also attributes the reasons for resorting to the strike to the fact that, given the failure of the concerned authorities to respond for years, “it is necessary to force them to deal seriously with the demands of the health sector, in order to preserve the health of the Libyan people in the face of the deteriorating situation in the country.”
