Striking Algerian doctors take to streets

Algerian doctors in the public sector are holding public protests to mark their third month of strikes and force more productive salary negotiations with the government.

Their unions demonstrated outside the Health Ministry in Algiers on Wednesday (February 10th), wearing white coats and waving red protest cards at officials. Labour leaders also marched in front of the Presidential Palace in Algiers on February 2nd. Future protests are planned outside administrative offices in Constantine, Annaba, Oran and Ourgla.

Doctors "are simply demanding their rights, which are enshrined in the laws of the Republic and the civil service regulations, just as they are for other sectors," Dr. Mohamed Yousfi told Magharebia on February 10th. Yousfi, the chairman of the National Union of Special Public Health Practitioners, vowed that doctors would "turn up the volume" until unions were granted a meeting with the health minister.

Public-sector doctors are demanding a revision to their "special status" designation, which currently puts them at the same pay level as nurses and other public health workers, while providing no holiday pay. The "special status" label also means that doctors do not receive state housing when they are transferred to hospitals in other cities.

Dr. Lyes Merabit, who heads the National Union of Public Health Practitioners, insisted the strike represented "collective – not personal – interests".

"We have tried all possible kinds of negotiation with the powers that be, without success," he told Magharebia on February 10th. "Rallies are the last resort to getting our demands met."

Speaking on national radio after the first protest, Health Minister Said Barakat called on striking doctors to show "restraint and to return to work".

"Every single person is being called upon to make a greater effort, under such circumstances, to put the interests of patients above any other consideration," he added.

Union heads insist that patients are receiving adequate care during the strike, but sharply criticise the government for its failure to hear the doctors' demands.

"The authorities' reaction of simply shutting their doors is a move in completely the wrong direction," Dr. Merabet said. "The way they have done this gives you an idea of the behaviour of the ministry and the authorities towards their social partners."

Dr. Merabet said other public sector workers were treated much better in negotiations than were public health workers.

The doctors' strike has brought a wave of support from civil society. Representatives of the Algerian Human Rights League came to the February 10th rally to show their support.

"Doctors are entitled to express their rights," the league's general secretary, Abdelmoumen Khelil, told journalists at the rally.

Teachers' union CNAPEST observed a day of protest on February 16th to show solidarity with the doctors. Several political parties and NGOs have also shown support for the action.

But some patients expressed concern at the prolonged strike.

"At the end of the day, the doctors' demands are legitimate, but they have to remember that they have a responsibility and obligations to fulfil," Kamel, 51, told Magharebia as he left a clinic in Sidi M'hamed.

"The health sector is very sensitive, and you must not play with other people's lives."