Doctors continue strikes in public hospitals, demanding professional stability

Doctors continue their strike at public hospitals for the second consecutive day since its start on Wednesday, renewing their call for the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to open dialogue and provide details about the organizational text related to wage centralization and professional stability.

The Independent Union of Public Sector Doctors reported that national strike participation rates, as of Thursday morning, reached 50% overall, with participation levels hitting 90% in many hospitals across the Kingdom.

Striking doctors are firmly resolved about the “absence of sufficient and genuine guarantees to maintain public employee status within the 2025 Finance Law draft, and wage centralization.”

Mountadir Alaoui, the National General Secretary of the Independent Union of Public Sector Doctors, stated that “the strike stems from the lack of dialogue with the ministry, despite ongoing calls for engagement,” in a statement to Hespress AR.

Alaoui noted that these strikes are a continuation of their planned protest program, with the strike’s future to be discussed in an upcoming central committee meeting next Sunday.

He added that the ministry continues to “ignore calls for dialogue to address outstanding issues,” emphasizing that “continued silence means escalation.”

The National General Secretary explained that “these protests are regular, and at the same time, the strikers extend a hand of dialogue and understanding while taking into account the unique and sensitive nature of working in emergency and intensive care services.”

Regarding their ongoing doubts about the Finance Bill, despite the general satisfaction among healthcare unions (of which they were a part) over guarantees to preserve wage centralization and the status of public employees, Alaoui emphasized that the strikers “withdrew from this coordination due to the July agreement which they did not sign, and are now representing only themselves.”

The striking doctors emphasize that “their action cannot be limited solely to the Finance Bill, but also concerns their exclusion from wage increases unlike other public sector employees, circumventing the agreement on two grades outside the framework which was established since 2011.”

Among other issues the strikers protest is “the government’s failure to honor commitments and its continuous backtracking on previously agreed terms, including the general agreement protocol signed on December 29, 2023, and the specific protocol between their union and the ministry, which was to be finalized by the end of January 2024.”