‘Family physicians investigated, fined for halting work in protest’

* Photo: Evrensel

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Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır MP Semra Güzel has submitted a Parliamentary question regarding the family physicians who have been faced with investigations and fines on the grounds that they halted work for a day on August 16 in protest against the amendments introduced to the Regulations on Payment and Contract of Family Medicine.

In her Parliamentary question addressed to Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca, HDP MP Güzel has noted that the related legal amendments, which were published in the Official Gazette on June 30, have led to losses of rights and eliminated job security on the part of family physicians.

As indicated by HDP's Semra Güzel, "with the new regulations, the authority to renew and terminate the contracts has been granted to the Provincial Health Directorates and the existing differences between the practices in different cities have been left to the mercy of people."

She has underlined that "by trampling upon all legal rules, extraordinary powers such as suspending from duty and refusing to renew contracts have been vested in Provincial Health Directorates."

Recalling that family physicians halted work for a day on August 16 and requested the re-amendment of the regulations, the MP has raised concerns that "an investigation has been launched against 800 family physicians who halted work in protest by exercising their Constitutional and democratic rights in the face of this unlawfulness and the physicians in İzmir have been fined with pay cuts before the investigations are concluded."

HDP's Güzel has further indicated that the health workers who have faced pay cuts have been unable to access their pay slips.

Halting work in protest is a right

Güzel has reminded the Minister that public officials have the right to hold collective protests in line with the decisions of unions and reiterated that this right is recognized by international conventions, especially ILO 87 and 98, as well as by human rights conventions, Constitution and court rulings, adding that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the Council of State and administrative legal bodies have rulings in that regard.

Güzel has then moved on to ask Health Minister Koca some questions in this context. Questioning the "Constitutional ground based on which the aforementioned powers have been granted to Provincial Health Directorates," she has asked, "What measures have been taken in the face of the rights violations to be caused by differences to occur in practice?"

Referring to the "practice of quota and performance introduced in monitoring chronic patients", the HDP MP has asked "what kind of measures will be taken against the losses of rights in the laborers' employee personal rights, pay cuts, increasing workload and mobbing."

She has also asked "Is it legal to launch an investigation into the family medicine workers' halting of work in protest by exercising their democratic rights, which are guaranteed by domestic and international law?"

"What is the legal ground for the pay cuts that have been applied without the investigation being completed," she has asked further, questioning "if an administrative investigation will also be launched against the authorities who imposed these fines before the investigations ended."

Concluding her questions, HDP Diyarbakır MP Semra Güzel has asked the number of public officials who have faced investigations and fines in the last 10 years on the grounds that they participated in the protests, events and strikes organized by unions. (KÖ/SD)