Health Care Employees' Union expresses no confidence in health minister

RIGA - The Latvian Trade Union of Health and Social Care Employees (LVSADA) has decided to express no confidence in Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri (New Unity) and the Health Ministry, the union's head Valdis Keris told LETA.

The next steps will be decided by LVSADA at its next council meeting on December 16. At the moment, the next steps need to be identified - surveys may have to be carried out to identify options for further action, Keris explained.

The union will be watching how work on the 2026 draft state budget bill continues in parliament, said Keris. If the budget is not adopted and the government falls, one option will be considered, but if the government continues its work, that will be another scenario.

"At the moment there is still not enough information, but I believe that by mid-December the situation will be clear enough," said Keris.

The union's leader also confirmed that staging a rally is not ruled being out, pointing out that a vote of no confidence is only one of the first steps.

As reported, the union wants wages raised 13.5 percent for medical employees and EUR 120 for support staff next year. This would require an additional EUR 133 million from the state budget.

According to the Union of Health and Social Care Employees, during the first conciliation commission's meeting the union urged the Health Ministry to ask the Cabinet of Ministers to allot additional funding for healthcare and proposed to postpone further talks until the government's response was received.

However, at the second meeting of the commission, the Health Ministry said it would not submit such a request to the government. Instead, the ministry proposed that it and the Union of Health and Social Care Employees jointly submit a request for a salary hike when work begins on the 2027 state budget (in 2026), provided that this is not prohibited by the government, the union explained.

According to the Union of Health and Social Care Employees, it cannot agree to such a "generous" offer, which is why no agreement was reached between the two sides.

The Union of Health and Social Care Employees points out that the Health Ministry is ignoring the fact that the European Commission this year recommended Latvia to ensure a significant increase in public funding not only for defense but also for healthcare in order to promote competitiveness, sustainability, and social justice.

The union has therefore concluded that the Health Ministry's "unforgivably incompetent attitude toward strengthening public healthcare will not only worsen public health but also pose threat to viability of the state."

The union points out that neither this year nor in 2026 does the state plan to raise salaries for healthcare employees, even though the sector's competitiveness has already fallen back to 2020 levels. This, the union warns, threatens to accelerate the outflow of professionals from the public sector in a situation where such professionals already are in critically low supply.

Health Minister Hosams Abu Meri (New Unity) said that the union's demand for an extra EUR 133 million for the salaries of medical staff does not seem realistic at the moment.

Extra EUR 34.5 million has been earmarked for health care in the 2025 state budget, most of which will go to the development of maternal and child care.