Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, December 28.- The ministers of Education and Higher Education, vice ministers of Public Health and Finance and Prices and the general secretaries of the unions of Health Workers and Workers of Education, Science and Sports, They appear this Thursday at the Round Table to report on the Government's decisions to increase income and improve care for personnel in these two large social areas, genuine achievements of the Revolution.
Health and education are priorities for the Cuban government
At the beginning of the Round Table, Maritza Cruz García, Vice Minister of Finance and Prices, highlighted that in planning the State budget for 2024, support for social expenses remained a priority.
It is a conquest of the Revolution that is maintained, even in adverse conditions, he maintained and added that proof of this is that in 2024, 63 percent of total spending is dedicated to the health, education, assistance and social security sectors. as well as culture and sport.
She stated that a premise of next year's budget has been to restore the level of activity and plan a discrete increase in spending to support those levels of activity and the recovery of the services provided to the population.
Health and education have always been paramount in our budget. Public health receives 26 percent of total spending and education, 20 percent. If we talk about values, 60 billion pesos go to health, and 55 thousand go to education, Cruz García said.
According to the Vice Minister of Finance and Prices, spending on personnel in these sectors covers 20 percent.
She explained that the budget is in very adverse conditions, marked by an economy with very modest growth and that does not obtain the necessary income to support social spending. That is why it has not been possible to support a salary increase in the entire budgeted sector, because there is no earning capacity in this fiscal year.
Despite this, she reaffirmed that the Government has decided to support a fair and necessary measure for the health and education sectors, due to the need we have to stabilize the specialized workforce in these sectors to improve the quality of life and education. It is a measure that the people have demanded.
This measure has an impact on budget spending, since they are sectors with almost a million workers.
We are talking about more than 25 billion pesos in increased spending to support the measures. In public health, there are 13,785 million in personnel and tax expenditure; in education, 11,544 million, which includes higher education, with 756 million.
The vice minister clarified that both measures include other educational sectors, such as those belonging to Culture and Inder.
It is not a total measure, it is a partial measure in correspondence with the income capacity we have had, she clarified.
The State has made it a priority to make a differentiated allocation to these sectors. This requires everyone who manages resources to raise income capacity. It is important to confirm the weight that increasing these incomes has on the deficits. Not only those related to the business system, which is a vital sector in the economy, but also to non-state forms of management, she stressed.
She added that to the extent that we are able to produce and increase goods and services, we will be able to implement other measures in these and other sectors.
Cruz García recalled that it is a group of measures, they are not isolated. Really, this is an investment, an essential and necessary measure that will have a positive effect on the population. That same population that today pays high prices and requires inflation to decrease will receive a higher quality service in education and health.
She also warned that this step also requires that there be more control over these sectors to supervise that the effect of this measure is positive, and that its design and implementation are appropriate, in such a way that we guarantee that since it is implemented, they ensure the necessary financial resources.
The measure has resonance in the municipal budgets, on whose autonomy they have been working for more than two years, but it will also improve the quality of the direct services that the population receives in the municipalities and provinces of the country, said the Vice Minister of Finance and prices.
Four measures related to income increases for the health sector
Luis Fernando Navarro Martínez, Vice Minister of Public Health, reported that the sector brings together more than 409 thousand workers, of which 279 thousand 429 are professionals, including university students, higher and middle level technicians, in addition to 130 thousand administrative workers, operators and of services, which also play a very important role in the services that the population receives daily.
He also recognized the effort that the country makes to support the financial resources in the State budget each year to guarantee the sustainability of health care that is completely free.
The adoption of 22 measures for the health sector, which include four fundamental ones, will influence the income of an important group of workers, especially professionals and technicians directly linked to medical services, he said.
He announced that there are four measures related to medical and service collaboration as part of the export of services. Another 12 are related to the improvement of the living and working conditions of our workers. Three are designed to further increase moral stimulation.
The vice minister clarified that he would focus his intervention on the four measures related to income increases, while the rest will be announced by the organization in the coming days.
He reported that the measures that increase the income of professionals and technicians directly related to medical care have a first stage and will begin to take effect as of January 1, 2024. It is expected that they will contribute to reducing the fluctuation of professionals towards other jobs. in the country.
According to Navarro Martínez, the first measure dictates establishing the additional monthly payment for years of service for doctors, stomatologists, nursing staff, psychologists, technologists, graduates and technicians who fulfill specific functions, typical of health activity.
This is an important claim, especially from doctors and stomatologists, because a minimum seniority was approved for nurses and technologists; However, doctors and stomatologists did not have that payment, he said and specified that a scale establishes a payment determined by years of services.
He called to take into account that in health there is an important group of professionals with more than 30 years of service who are still active and it is fair that they be recognized for the effort they have made almost their entire lives after graduating.
He clarified that, after 30 years of work, every two years corresponds to an increase of 400 pesos per month. We are not just talking about those 30 years, but as the years go by, there is an increase of 400 pesos per month.
This payment measure for seniority of work in the national health system covers a total of 212,427 professionals and technicians, said Navarro Martínez.
Workers at universities of Medical Sciences will receive payment for years of service, as provided by the higher education system.
The second approved measure consists of increasing the hourly rate (pesos per hour) for doctors, stomatologists, nursing staff and technologists in the following amounts and times:
For doctors and stomatologists, the fee will be 50 pesos (Monday to Friday from seven at night to seven in the morning. Saturdays, from noon, and Sunday from seven in the morning)
This has been another demand from our workers, not only because of what it means to pay for hours worked, but because of the recognition of work at night and on Saturdays and Sundays. Our specialists have even had to increase the number of guards, based on the specific conditions that may exist in an institution, commented the vice minister.
For nursing staff, the rate is 40 pesos/hour, from seven at night to seven in the morning. The schedules depend on their adjustment, she explained.
For health technologists, the rate is 30 pesos/hour from seven at night to seven in the morning.
The third measure is related to the approval of an additional payment for special working conditions for doctors, stomatologists, nursing staff, psychologists, technologists, pharmacists and other technical professionals who work directly in the health services with the greatest demand for care and have a higher level of responsibility, or where the characteristics of the pathology to be treated demand greater physical or mental effort than normal.
This measure relates the effort made by the professional with recognition, in addition to their salary, Navarro Martínez pointed out.
He specified that the Minsap established five groups of special working conditions, applicable to doctors and stomatologists, which include services provided, from primary health care to the most complex in secondary and tertiary activity.
Group 1 has three pesos per hour; group two, 4.50 per hour; group three, six pesos; the four 7.80, and the five, 9.00 pesos.
A ministry document has already been approved that will be discussed in detail with our workers, so that they can know what these services are and at what level, he said.
For nursing staff and other technicians, rates increase to the following values: group 1 (1.20 per hour); group 2 (2.30 an hour) and group 3 (3.50)
It may seem minimal, but keep in mind that this is in addition to your pay scale, in addition to guard and seniority. We are recognizing the effort made by a group of workers, commented the vice minister. This measure will benefit 212,427 health professionals and technicians.
The fourth measure concerns the income of health professionals and authorizes payment for the maximum effort in the care, teaching, research and other services that ensure the vitality of the national health system.
This measure seeks to alleviate the increase in the work of our professionals, given the lack of any other professional in the same service where they could assume tasks that correspond to others, which we do not have covered today, he explained.
He added that this source of financing is from the unexecuted salary fund. The measure does not directly imply an increase in spending in the budget, since it is about the redistribution of that financing approved for each care unit and which is not executed because the position is not covered. The maximum amount approved to be paid is a limit of one hundred percent of the scale salary of the position held by the worker.
Navarro Martínez pointed out that this document has already been prepared and discussed by the ministry.
The rest of the measures will be implemented gradually based on the behavior of the country's economy and the material guarantee for some that demand certain decisions, with the participation of some organizations of the Central State Administration and local governments. All measures that have been approved for public health will be implemented progressively in 2024, he said.
According to Navarro Martínez, it is important to note that, as the Vice Minister of Finance and Prices explained, we are talking about measures with a cost above 13 billion pesos that were not initially conceived in the budget that the national health system generally uses.
This is nothing more than a manifestation of the effort of the Cuban Government and State to protect one of the most important achievements of the Revolution, which, furthermore, is its essence: public health, he stated.
I would not like – added Navarro Martínez – to finish this explanation without conveying to you, on behalf of Dr. José Angel Portal Miranda, Minister of Public Health, the management team of the ministry and the National Union of Health Workers, our recognition to all the workers of the sector for the work carried out during 2023 to guarantee medical services, subject to material limitations all year round, but always prioritizing the commitment to the health of the people.
These are the virtues of our workers, which will also be demonstrated on the 65th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution.
Health Union: These measures will benefit more than 250 thousand workers
Next, Santiago Badía González, national secretary of the National Union of Health Workers, spoke at the Round Table, referring to the union's second national conference, where the superior commitment to raising the quality of the services provided to the community was reaffirmed. town.
The central motto of our conference is united and committed to the health of the people, to that people who expect more from us and who are always there and are part of the Cuban family, because more than 400 thousand workers in the sector will be there together. to our people, he said.
Badía González highlighted that these measures will benefit more than 250 thousand workers, which is the result of the political will of the State and the Government. It is not a salary reform. The 22 measures have to do with needs recognized in the Health Workers Union conference process itself.
He pointed out that the four related to income are more immediate. For this reason, morning sessions are already taking place, also in the handovers of guards, where workers and administrative departments participate. Tomorrow, Friday the 29th, in the minister's expanded board of directors, we will be in a video conference with the entire country to give details of how to implement the measures.
He added that this Friday, at 11 in the morning, with the national subordination, we will be meeting to explain what happens from the first day, the immediacy that it means, because our workers need it and expect it.
He considered that they are very revolutionary measures that respond to questions related to antiquity. The workers expected it, it was a felt need of the workers in areas such as night shifts, not medical guard, because our workers work 365 days a year.
He also highlighted the work of the nursing staff, who is always there, next to the patient, and mentioned the second conference that will take place on February 1 and 2 at the Havana Convention Palace, with 450 delegates and guests. The sector's commitment is to health indicators, to making the system efficient and sustainable, while also developing and providing the highest quality service to our people.
After joining the congratulations of the Minister of Public Health, the board of directors, the Central Workers of Cuba and the labor movement, he affirmed that the National Union of Health Workers is very committed to the new Public Health Law and with these measures that are very revolutionary and that will reach the Cuban family.
Ministry of Education explains income increases for its workers
Later, at the Round Table, the Minister of Education, Naima Trujillo Barreto, highlighted the impact that the announcement of the new measures has had among workers in the sector, both teachers and non-teachers.
I think there have also been historical coincidences. We have been receiving through various means, even in a period of recess, what our workers think.
It has been extraordinary, because we have had the opportunity to reward the best results these days, and on December 22 we saw, as part of the Assembly, the intervention of the first secretary, so emotional, with special recognition to our sectors he said.
After highlighting how the recent educator's day was, he highlighted that the impact has been extraordinary, because I believe that in the same way that the educator's day is a recognition by society as a whole of the commendable and sacrificial work of our teachers. Well, that's also how these decisions have been made. I am sure that as they become known in greater detail this will be reinforced, but really we assume that it is also a recognition of the entire society and that there is a general acceptance that, indeed, it is precisely with the workers of Education that can be initiated, and also with the Health sector, these decisions, despite the complex tensions that the budget has and, above all, the challenges that 2024 has.
That even under these conditions the decision was made, I believe is also a concept that is historic in our revolutionary process, due to the importance of these achievements, indeed, as an impact service to society, but also due to the importance of the workers. of the Education system. And I wanted to transfer it because it has been practically in networks, in the communications that the main managers have made to us, commented Trujillo Barreto.
We have also been developing a program in whatever ways we can, because we have to prepare very well to be able to implement all the measures, and I think it is important to reinforce that idea. This is a program of measures where now, as in the health sector, those that are more immediate will be announced. But it is a very comprehensive, very comprehensive program, which we will inform about, but for which we have had to prepare very well, and based on that we will continue to ensure, based on the preparation, those who have to implement it at all levels, because Furthermore, our system is very large and many people are going to participate, more than 10 thousand schools, and so to implement it properly and also in the corresponding time, we have to prepare very well, that has been happening gradually.
Therefore, we also want to convey that tranquility—said the minister—because it has even required adjusting resolutions, that we have to devise new procedures, and I believe that this is an idea that should be known: that everything that is going to be done has had a participation not only to propose variants and that some of them can be assumed now, others will be assumed later to the extent that the conditions of the country allow it, but there has also been a wide participation of experts, of people from many backgrounds. experience in the system, to be able to devise the most appropriate procedures and that we do not run the risk that an inadequate implementation delays or has an inappropriate impact, as part of all the measures that have been devised, precisely, for the well-being of our workers, but I would say, of course, that of society as a whole, due to the importance that the solid educational system on which we have always opted for in the construction of our model, stated Trujillo Barreto.
It has already been spoken by those who preceded us about the concept that many recognize as antiquity. We return to it because it really is one of the issues that had been prioritized not only in systematic approaches by workers in the sector, but also in this case, for the first time, for the Education system, for example, non-governmental organizations are involved. only teachers but also non-teaching workers. I think that has an important impact because they are also part of that comprehensive educational process that takes place from early childhood, to all educational levels, which involves the general education subsystem, she commented.
But in any case, it is precisely the range of 30 years of experience that has the most teaching workers in the system.
I always say that 30 years working in education and for education, with the many sleepless nights that education professionals have to dedicate to properly do their job and carry out their professional activity with quality is a lot. And well, indeed, that is where we have the oldest age range and in the fifteen years of work. Therefore, it is precisely the professional life cycle that currently predominates, when we structure the ranges of ages and experiences in the case of teachers.
She explained that non-teachers will also have a benefit in some way and that is also important for us because there are even educational levels that rely an important part of the training work on non-teachers, due to the characteristics of their ages, for various reasons, special conditions, for example in special education, in early childhood, and we always want to reiterate that because it is like that and it has been, let's say, novel on this occasion.
On the other hand, we have also been distinguishing, at least in this first stage, in this first moment, as far as we can, the income for teachers who work in pedagogical schools. And we have to revalue the way we establish training. Because it is the variable that most defines the result later. That is, how we train the teacher. And also in the case of the IPVCE, which will then have special distinction within the system, at least in this first stage this is what has been possible. I believe that it will also be welcomed, because the IPVCE, the pedagogical schools, also have exceptional commitments at this stage.
And, on the other hand, I would like to insist on the measures that are related to remuneration for overload conditions. In this case we are stimulating people who, in addition to carrying out the activity that normally corresponds to a teacher at an educational level, assume special conditions to be able to carry out the tasks that would correspond to a teacher that we do not have today. That is, those territories where there is a more complex coverage situation, but I would say that practically throughout the country there may be a greater or lesser expression of this situation and that in short they do it every day. Because it is really very difficult for an educational institution not to commit our teachers to the training process of a larger group of students, because it is necessary to cover some deficit at a given time, in terms of the number of programs, the number of educational levels with which we work; Sometimes in a mixed center we work with several educational levels and until now we had had certain regulations that did not allow us to properly recognize all the work that our professionals do anyway.
Likewise—she said—this would also allow them to be teachers of the education system itself, who maintain their continuous training in the system, the effect of the methodological work and who can spend much longer in the institution and let's say a more stable response to those shortcomings.
“In that sense, what we have been doing until now becomes very flexible. This also comes from the non-execution of the budget, therefore, it does not have such a strong burden. But, we made it very flexible because not only the rates were transformed, but we also began to assume other forms of that overload that we had not been able to see in that way. And in that we have to be extraordinarily grateful for the criteria that our workers expressed to us in the August tour, where they illustrated us with examples such as in the payment for example of hourly overload, initially a rate had been approved that corresponded to 30 percent. percent of the salary that was received, but then came all the regulations and we maintained the same amount. I think it was very good that it was illustrated in that way, it was a very interesting debate, very rich and they also gave us many other examples that we have understood. I would like to illustrate some because we too will gradually have to explain why there are many variants that we are going to assume in this case, and that I believe are going to be very stimulating, because being in a condition of overload merits it, and above all because which in terms of quality can help the educational institution.
For example, we had already assumed that when a teacher does not have an educational assistant he should receive for that activity he does, but we said something like that in the concept like that for taking his group to lunch, and really not having an educational assistant is not Just join them at lunch, because there are many other things that the educational assistant must do that the teacher does not have. Therefore, for example, although it seems that the variant was already identified, today we are thinking about it in a different way because it is much beyond that and therefore it will also have its expression in how we assume that it should be remunerated.
And then there are many variants that make the possibility even more flexible that a professor can teach in more than one institution at any educational level. We are talking about it, even in primary education, because in addition the way in which the process of improving education is implemented offers a lot of flexibility for the organization of life at school. So we have been releasing a group of issues, all these measures that have to do with being able to cover the deficit that we have in conditions of overload, are ultimately transitory, because we are sure that gradually we will have to have a favorable impact on a qualified, stable and high-level workforce, in which there is also a program that is very broad and that not only has to do with remuneration or economic impacts but with other things. But, obviously during this time this would be an always more stable response, with greater guarantee because it is a professional prepared for that activity and we are releasing a group of regulations that we had established, of course always protecting above all that the quality of the training process does not be the one that has its main impacts(don't be damaged, she meant, I imagine), and that will allow the same teacher to carry out his activity at more than one educational level, in more than one educational institution, the minister explained. (Text and photo: Cubadebate)
