New care agreement ready: “Happy and relieved”

A new agreement is in place and the nursing strike is canceled with immediate effect.

– I am most satisfied with the fact that those who work in rotation now get a reduction in working hours, says the chairman of the Swedish Healthcare Association Sineva Ribeiro to TT.

Even Jeanette Hedberg, head of negotiations at SKR, is relieved about the new agreement.

– Now it is important that we look ahead and see the challenges we have in healthcare. That is why we need to work together with the healthcare association, she tells TT.

The reduction in working hours has been the most debated issue in the agreement.

– I would have liked to have seen that we had come further with the shortening of working hours, but we have put the issue on the agenda, and we will not let go of that issue. We are already in the starting pits for the next contract movement, says Vårdförbundet’s Sineva Ribeiro.

The new agreement provides, among other things, a reduction in working hours by four hours for people who work in rotation – that is, work lasts during days, evenings and nights. It must be introduced on November 1.

– There we had to compromise for a quarter of an hour, but I am satisfied, says Sineva Ribeiro.

SKR believes that working hours will be a difficult issue for employers to resolve.

– But we judge that it is necessary that we approach the Healthcare Association in order to get an agreement and put an end to the conflict, says Jeanette Hedberg.

Sineva Ribeiro also sees it as a success that they have now also received an agreement for academic specialist employment,

– We have seen that specialist training has become fewer and fewer. Now the employer has to pay for specialist training, they didn’t have to before, says Sineva Ribeiro.

– There are things in the agreement that will give us a push forward, she says.