Chess in health care. Unions broke off talks on wages, demanding the presence of the Ministry of Finance

The trade union side left a meeting of the tripartite team on Tuesday, which concerned the financial situation of the National Health Fund and remuneration in health care. The reason for the interruption of the talks was the lack of a representative of the Ministry of Finance, Maria Ochman from NSZZ “Solidarność” told PAP.

The Chairwoman of the National Secretariat for Health Protection of NSZZ “Solidarność” told PAP that the condition for returning to talks on December 2 as part of the Tripartite Team for Health Protection is the presence of a representative of the Ministry of Finance or the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. She emphasized that the social side and employers' representatives submitted a request for a decision-maker from the Ministry of Finance to participate in Tuesday's meeting, but there was no representative of the Ministry of Finance.

Ochman said that the trade union also expects to present documents regarding the financial situation of the National Health Fund and proposals to solve the health care crisis. – We are afraid that the only idea will be to take money away from employees receiving minimum wages, which, as we know, will not be enough to cover the liabilities, Ochman noted.

Deputy Minister of Health Katarzyna Kęcka told PAP that Tuesday's agenda included the so-called the Act on the Minimum Wage, as well as the Ministry of Health's proposals regarding systemic changes. She added that the next point was payments for overperformance in the National Health Fund. – These talks did not actually take place on the trade union side – said Kęcka.

She emphasized that the trade union side had submitted a request to interrupt the meeting and postpone it to a date when a representative of the Ministry of Finance would appear. Kęcka noted that the employers' side was against interrupting the meeting, so a decision was made to vote on this matter. The Deputy Minister of Health announced that the request to interrupt the meeting was rejected and the trade union side left the meeting despite its appeals to continue the dialogue.

Kęcka declared that she would convince the Ministry of Finance to participate in the next meeting of the tripartite team scheduled for December 2. She noted that the invitation to the Ministry of Finance had been sent.

The Deputy Minister of Health expressed hope that on December 2 there will be an agreement on the so-called Act on minimum wages in health care. She added that work on systemic changes in the competences of doctors, which affect the Minimum Wage Act, is quite advanced.

The employers' side told PAP that despite the representatives of trade union headquarters refraining from participating in the meeting, the employers presented their positions.

“We consider the current health care situation to be extremely serious and require responsible dialogue on all sides. We are unequivocally negative about the lack of presence of a representative of the Minister of Finance during the meeting, which is not only inconsistent with the Team's Regulations, but also unjustified in the light of the growing dependence of the National Health Fund on budget funds,” they noted in the release.

The employers' side declared openness to dialogue and taking specific steps to ensure the stable functioning of the health care system.

The employers informed that the agenda of Tuesday's meeting of the Tripartite Team for Health Protection included, among others: discussion of the current financial situation of the National Health Fund, presentation of the position of social partners on proposals for changes in the so-called the Act on Minimum Wages in Health Care and the implementation of regulations in the area of ​​contractual remuneration.

The subject of the work of the Tripartite Team includes, among others: proposals presented by the Ministry of Health.

These include: changing the mechanism for indexation of the lowest basic salaries; increasing work rates for groups 5 and 6, including nurses and midwives with higher education (first-cycle studies) and specialization or with secondary education and specialization, as well as nurses and midwives with secondary education who do not have a specialization in the field of nursing or a field applicable to health care; adapting the deadlines for minimum wage increases to the budget planning calendar of the state, the National Health Fund, medical entities and to the deadlines for concluding agreements and issuing orders provided for in the Act; introducing a provision obliging a healthcare entity to assign an employee to a higher professional group if he or she obtains higher professional qualifications, if they were obtained at the request or with the consent of the employer; introducing changes to the rules for concluding civil law contracts in the field of health services financed from public funds.

One of the proposals is to determine the maximum remuneration for persons providing benefits under a civil law contract, i.e. the so-called contract. Currently, the regulations do not specify such a maximum. According to the proposal, it would be approximately 40 thousand. PLN gross per month per full-time position. It would be possible to increase the hourly rate in exceptional situations – however, the maximum salary could not be higher than PLN 48,000. PLN gross per month per full-time position.

At the end of October, the Ministry of Health announced that the solutions were taken from, among others, from the citizen's bill amending the act on the method of determining the lowest basic salary of certain employees employed in medical entities, the position of September 22, 2025 on increasing the availability of health care services of the Management Board of the Association of Voivodeships of the Republic of Poland, the report “Financial gap of the health care system in Poland. Perspective 2025-2027” prepared by the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs, as well as the citizen's bill of OZZPiP regarding further regulation of the issue of qualifications for higher group due to the increase in qualifications of an employee of the healthcare entity. (PAP)

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