Substantial rises for Italian healthworkers

Workers in the Italian public health system won substantial pay increases in a deal signed earlier this month, just before the election won by Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition.

The agreement, which covers 565,000 health service workers, runs from January 2000 to December 2001. It provides an average of Euro93.75 per month on grade rates but in addition some 280,000 employees, mostly nurses, benefit from a regrading which adds another Euro113.65 a month, taking the total increase for these workers to Euro207.40. Employees who have "co-ordination" responsibilities also get an extra Euro1,550 a year and there are extra payments for other specialists such as intensive care nurses.

The increase, achieved after a strike on 30 March, has outraged the Italian employers' association Confindustria. Antonio D'Amato Confindustria's president said the government needed to show a greater "sense of responsibility". The unions are particularly pleased with the deal. Carlo Podda of CGIL, the largest union confederation in Italy, said "it contributes to the defence of the national health service against all attempts to dismantle it."