60-year-old retired doctor and nurse: requirements for her application

The workers’ committees submitted to the Ministry of Social Security a firm proposal to consider the possibility of advancing retirement age of health and social professionals at the age of sixty under certain conditions. As the Secretary General of the Federation of Health and Social Health Sectors in the Federation explained to the Medical Office, Humberto MunozIt is a matter of “fairness” for some workers who, he says, are subjected to “excessive hardship” due to the gravity of their work and the length of their shifts.

The possibility of raising the retirement age for health workers is once again on the table of the Ministry of Social Security.

For years, we and the government have been raising the need to take into account certain factors to lower the retirement age for health and social health professionals. We are not only talking about care workers, but also those associated with administration and services such as regulators, although they are not yet considered health personnel. Our union doesn’t just say that: organizations like the International Labor Organization (ILO) devoted to studying the prevention of occupational hazards suggest that hardship, night hours and the danger of certain occupations are a reason to apply lower retirement age coefficients. . What we proposed to the General Directorate of Social Security Regulation is to open a working group that studies these transactions to determine an early age without losing the pension.

Under what circumstances do you think a healthcare professional can retire at age 60? Should it be a mandatory measure for the whole group?

The procedure will be feasible for all those who meet certain criteria, as it will not affect all health workers. For example, a nurse working a fixed shift from Monday to Friday will not have different stiffness coefficients than those of a worker in another sector; But the system that takes work shifts with stretches in the morning, afternoon, and night does. These are people who, by reason of guards or continuity of care, contribute in 30 years to what others do in 40. Everything must be duly approved so that professionals, in specific cases, can retire early without damaging, he insisted, their pension.

Do I have to specify a minimum number of years of subscription to reach this condition?

No, we are not asking for a change in the “status quo” of pensions, which on the other hand is an issue currently under review and negotiation. This will actually open a different watermelon. We demand that a series of special cases be dealt with, as happens in the police and the military, so that health workers are also recognized as people in severe hardship.

There may be a government decision that, from a certain moment, raise the retirement age to 60 for health workers, although we realize it doesn’t seem like the right time for that. The other way is to urge the government to acknowledge that there are a number of people, in this case from the health and social health sector, who are specially punished and who are very sensitive to the situation around them, as evidenced by the pandemic. The quickest, most objective and direct way to raise this request is through shorthand coefficients which, when applied to a series of parameters, can show who has the right to and who is not by the data of the labor profession for each of them.

He acknowledges that the time does not seem to be the most appropriate time for such an initiative at the political level. Despite this, do you think your initiative can thrive?

The economic situation is what it is, it shows. But we understand that the previous crisis has already shown that the policy of cuts and austerity is doomed to failure, and that the welfare of workers in this country is not a wasteful policy. We do not order coffee for everyone: we stand up for what we have to do, which is the right of the health and social health sector. And now we have a solid foundation that supports our approach. It is not an arbitrary demand nor the pursuit of privileges, what we are asking of society is compensation, with retirement a few years before the general age, for people who have worked for society in very difficult and risky conditions. This does not have to depend on whether the economic situation is more or less favorable.

At what stage is negotiation?

It’s too early to say, because we just asked the government to open a working group where we have the opportunity to participate and provide the data that supports us. We don’t know if there will be tuning or not, but I always give a chance for dialogue. And I ask the same to the Department of Social Security, it is now up to the administration to evaluate our request and answer us, because they will not understand an answer that is not, at least, sit down and listen to us.