Nurses at a rally in Tskhinvali demanded higher salaries

Number-level medical personnel of the Republican Multidisciplinary Medical Center of South Ossetia held a spontaneous rally, demanding indexation of salaries. President Alan Gagloev came to the rally and promised to resolve the situation.

Nurses of the Republican Multidisciplinary Medical Center went on strike this morning and held a rally in the courtyard of the institution, declaring their disagreement with the salary indexation system. According to the protesters, the salary increase affected only senior and junior medical personnel, but not the middle ones.

The management told the dissatisfied that “Russia insists on such a payment system,” a nurse at the children's hospital Irina told a correspondent of the “Caucasian Knot”.

“They say that according to the law, 500 nurses should be employed in our republic, but we have 800, and that’s why they don’t raise our salaries, otherwise we’d have to fire 300 nurses. It’s a shame because of the injustice, when juniors get paid more than me, and I work no less, and I have more responsibility. When you go to the store, they don’t ask who you are, a nurse or a nurse’s aide. The prices are the same for everyone,” Irina said.

Now, on average, nurses and nurses get paid from 25 to 30 thousand rubles. According to the protesters, given the latest regulations, only junior medical personnel received higher salaries, but not mid-level ones, and as a result, nurses' and orderlies' salaries became equal.

The first to come to the protesters were representatives of the parliamentary opposition: deputies of the United Ossetia party, led by the party's chairman Atsamaz Bibilov, as well as the head of the parliamentary committee on social policy and health care, Alexander Pliev. Later, President Alan Gagloev arrived at the RMMC.

The nurses told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that Alan Gagloev began the conversation with those gathered in the RMMC courtyard with comments and accusations.

"He asked each of us separately why we were standing outside, why we weren't at our workplace. He said that we didn't know anything yet and were "stirring up the situation." The situation in the teams is also very tense, many accuse us of being against the nurses. Including, by the way, the president, he also accused us of this today. But we are not against them, let them have 30, 40, 50 thousand, but let them also raise our salaries, like them,” said RMMC nurse Fatima.

Later, the president and some of the protesters met in the RMMC conference room. The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of South Ossetia Oleg Gagloev. He again explained to the RMMC employees that the salary amounts are set by Russia every year when money is allocated, but he also could not explain the logic of such a distribution.

After the meeting, the protesters were told that the president had promised to resolve the situation by the end of next week.

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