Workers of Penza regional ambulance station started the work-to-rule at 7:00 on May 27, said the correspondent of «7×7».
According to the chairman of the regional trade union of health workers «Deystviye» Pavel Kuznetsov, more than 130 people are involved into the work-to-rule:
— In the beginning, 138 people declared their participation, then I lost count. The people who came on shift refuse to work in skeleton crews and demand that the management should obey labor laws.
According to Kuznetsov, work-to-rule means working in strict compliance with the Labor Code of the Russian Federation and the procedure for providing medical assistance. This is a form of protest, in which the ambulance staff sticks to the duties and rules strictly. As there are a lot of rules violations in the regional ambulance station, failures in work are inevitable.
At the moment at least one paramedic is known not to respond to a call in skeleton crew (one medical worker instead of two).
— After that an assistant joined her, they responded to one call, and the second paramedic was taken away, — said Pavel Kuznetsov. — After that she refused to work in skeleton crew again. She was threatened to be reported, but got away with verbal threats. After a while a nurse joined her.
According to Pavel Kuznetsov, ambulance workers from all districts of Penza Oblast call him and declare their readiness to join the work-to-rule. People ask for detailed instructions of how to protect their rights without breaking the law or harming their patients.
Kuznetsov told "7x7" that additional nurses from hospitals and one anesthesiologist are employed by order of the regional Ministry of Health in order to normalize the work of Penza regional ambulance station: they are removed from the main place of work and included into emergency teams.
Pavel Kuznetsov claims to have no dialogue with the administrations of the regional Ministry of Health and of the ambulance station.
The ambulance staff announced the «work-to-rule» on May 23. On May 24, they published a 16-point list of their demands. The main ones are salary increase and a larger number of emergency teams.
