Doctors' unions planning to stage protests over low pay in health sector

The chairman of the Doctors' Trade Union, Milan Kubek, has revealed that the unions will organise a token strike unless Health Minister Milada Emmerova accepts demands to introduce an independent wage scale system in the health sector. Mr Kubek told journalists on Monday that he was hoping he would be able to meet with the health minister as early as next week, and if that failed, to ask Prime Minister Stanislav Gross for a meeting. The Doctors' Trade Union chairman said that the lack of progress in talks between the government and the unions last week led to the decision to increase pressure on the government.

The unions are dissatisfied because 2004 marks the first time since 1998 that health care employees' real incomes have fallen.