Morocco's Independent Nurses Union on strike, to stop releasing daily Covid data

Morocco’s Independent Nurses Union said on Friday it will stop releasing daily COVID-19 data, along with a 72-hour national strike near the Health Ministry’s delegates across the country on March 2.

The union’s move aims to express the nurses’ disagreement with a newly signed agreement on Thursday by the head of government, Aziz Akhannouch, Health Minister, Khalid Ait Taleb, the Delegate Minister to the Economy and Finance Ministry, Faouzi Lekjaa, and most unions.

First deputy and Founder of the Independent Nurses Union, Omar Goumna told Hespress EN in a statement, “I represented the union in the recent meeting, and I was the exception not to sign the agreement among the other unions.”

“I’ve noticed so many blurry measures that were set in the agreement in order to improve and meet nurses’ needs,” the founder of the union said, adding, “I didn’t agree about some of the decisions made regarding the compensation of nurses.”

In a response to Hespress EN’s question about what kind of decisions the union disapproved of, the Founder said, “the compensation will be applied only for nurses who are graduate with an LMD system, a master’s degree, rather than nurses who studied only 2 to 3 years in the old educational training system, and have seniority of over 10 years in the position.”

“Nurses are the ones who mostly face dangers in the health sector, as in intensive care units, doctors leave, while nurses stay in for night shifts all along with patients to measure the respiratory rate, and do a follow-up 24h/24,” the Founder of the union added.

“During the COVID-19 circumstances, several nurses and health professionals passed away while practicing their job,” he stated, noting, “the nurse is directly exposed to the virus.”

“ I’ve noticed so many disparities among nurses, as some get paid for MAD6200, while some others get only MAD1500 with the same position, leading me to wonder why there are such differences,” he specified.

The Founder of the union stated the government’s decision of compensation will be applied only for a quota of 33%, which means it won’t involve the majority.

As of yesterday, the government signed the agreement with most unions, including the National Labor Union (UMT), Independent union of public sector doctors, General Union of Moroccan labors (UGTM), and Democratic Health Organization (ODT).

Both parties agreed on several measures, among them, the improvement in the position of doctors, pharmacists, and dentists, with full compensation.

Nurses will benefit from promotion in rank positions as well as increasing the value of compensation for the benefit of administrative staff and health technicians, according to the government’s press release.