The Council of Latvia's Trade Union of Health and Social Care Workers has decided to hold a protest at the Saeima (parliament) building and launch preparations for a strike. The main reason for the protest is the further reductions in the health budget planned by the government. According to the trade union, the government has set the healthcare budget at 3% of gross domestic product in 2016, or less than 3.1% this year. This is contrary to the World Health Organization and European Commission's recommendations to improve access to healthcare and quality of healthcare. The trade union has three demands: higher healthcare quotas, reducing patients' co-payments, and increasing average wages for healthcare workers.
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For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.