Coronavirus tests (illustration).
-
Mathieu Pattier / SIPA
In Occitania, more than 25,000 PCR tests are carried out every week.
Private and public laboratories and their employees are under pressure.
Employees in the private sector are asking for salary increases in this period of great activity.
They are tired, and for some disgusted with the lack of recognition of their work.
While in Occitania more than 25,000 PCR tests are carried out every day in public and private laboratories, some of their employees have decided to give a rant in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.
The employees of the group of Biofusion labs, which employ nearly 200 people on twenty sites in the departments of Haute-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne and Lot, have decided to go on strike on Tuesday and to demonstrate in Montauban.
#totemINFO Employees of #Biofusion on strike.
Around a hundred employees from 82/46/31 gathered in front of the site at Pont de Chaume in Montauban.
They are demanding a salary increase and a better Covid bonus in this period when the workload is on the rise.
pic.twitter.com/4SLAq266Pz
- Johan GESREL 🎙️📻 (@JohanGESREL) September 15, 2020
“They are rinsed, exhausted by their working conditions.
During confinement, some of them found themselves on partial unemployment and there, they must catch up with the backlog of analyzes in addition to Covid tests.
The management set up a bonus of 250 euros, but only for those who were on site during the confinement ”, deplores Pierre Louis Canavelli, CFDT social health secretary general, who called for a strike alongside the FO and the CGT .
Public / private differences
They are claiming a Covid premium of 1,000 euros, as was the case for their public counterparts.
As well as a Macron bonus and a revaluation of all salaries up to 10%.
A feeling shared by many other technicians in private laboratories.
“For months we have been facing a huge increase in our workload while continuing our routine work.
We suffer from the nervousness and aggressiveness of many patients who think that it is enough to simply take the sample and snap their fingers to get the result, ”one of them told
20 Minutes
.
But, as for the employees of Biofusion, what bothers her is "the unacceptable difference in salary between the public and private sector".
"All the government announcements to support and show its recognition for the effort and dedication of health professionals mobilized since the start of the epidemic have only widened again and again the already enormous hole between the private and the public in our sector, ”she assures, pointing to a sometimes tenfold premium between the public and the private sector, with equal constraints.
"Linked by agreements with Social Security"
This saturation of laboratory employees, Richard Fabre, president of the Regional Union of Biological Health Professionals of Occitania does not deny it.
“The month of August was difficult, our laboratories were understaffed due to holidays and at the same time we doubled our activity.
Today, everyone is in great tension.
We reacted by recruiting and investing in machines, but that takes time.
We have also given bonuses to our employees, ”explains this representative of private laboratories.
Our file on Covid-19
He regrets that this strike movement occurs when the issue of PCR tests is already sensitive, between the waiting times for them to be done and the time it takes for results to be returned.
“Most laboratories have paid their employees for their efforts, turnover has increased, it is normal that they benefit from it.
After that, we can always discuss the level of remuneration, but I would remind you that, even though we are self-employed, we are bound by agreements with Social Security, ”notes Richard Fabre.
Toulouse
Coronavirus in Toulouse: Saturated labs, waiting times increased tenfold ... the test policy to the test of reality
Society
Coronavirus in Toulouse: 87 Insa students tested positive, the director denounces "irresponsible behavior"
Screening
Strike
Laboratory
Toulouse
Covid 19
Coronavirus
Health
Society