2023-09-06 16:30:40
Posted Sep 6, 2023, 6:10 PMUpdated on Sep 6, 2023 at 6:30 PM
Nurses and caregivers working at night and on weekends with the elderly will see their remuneration increase. The government announced on Wednesday that these professionals in accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) will benefit from the salary increases promised to caregivers in public hospitals last week.
“It is above all a question of fairness and recognition of the commitment of these professionals”, declared the Minister of Solidarity and Families, Aurore Bergé, during the summer universities of the Hospital Federation of France (FHF ).
Night work paid 25% more
The government has promised to release 1.1 billion euros to better pay doctors and paramedical professionals in hospitals. These increases should help establishments plagued by staff shortages to recruit and retain.
For nurses and nursing assistants in the public sector, night work will be paid 25% more than during the day. The compensation paid for work on Sundays and public holidays will also be increased by 20%.
These measures have been widely welcomed. The private sector, however, complained of being partly excluded, while public establishments immediately asked the executive to extend its “attractiveness shock” to nursing homes.
“Indispensable” boost
They are therefore “very satisfied” to have been heard and to have obtained an envelope valued at 40 million euros by the government, with some 90,000 professionals concerned. “Maintaining this difference [de rémunération entre les hôpitaux et les Ehpad] would have created organizational and fairness problems, ”explains Marc Bourquin to the FHF.
This boost is considered all the more “indispensable” as recruitment problems are even more marked in nursing homes than in hospitals. Admittedly, public nursing homes note slight signs of improvement on this front. However, the rate of vacant nursing positions remained above 12% last June according to the FHF. And it was 5.5% for caregivers.
The departments involved
Implementing upgrades, however, might be complicated. Because part of the nursing assistants in public nursing homes is financed by the departments and not by the Health Insurance. “The departments must agree to take into account [ces revalorisations] in their funding for establishments”, warns the FHF.
This system of dual funding by the departments and the Health Insurance is widely criticized in the sector. Especially since public nursing homes say they are facing “unprecedented” financial difficulties once morest a backdrop of inflation and a decline in their activity. To the point that the government released 100 million euros in emergency this summer. The private sector, splashed by the Orpea scandal, is not immune to these financial problems and is also affected by recruitment difficulties.
The gesture announced this Wednesday in favor of the public therefore goes very badly on the side of private actors. It “marks a break in equality in the sector of old age”, reacts Jean-Christophe Amarantinis, the president of the federation of private actors, Synerpa. “The Ségur revaluations and then the tariff shield once morest inflation had concerned all professionals in old age regardless of the status of the structures”, he recalls.
The potion is also bitter for players in the non-profit sector whose nurses and caregivers will also not be increased at night and on weekends. It is “a crushing blow for private solidarity, when we represent more than 30% of Ehpad, declares Charles Guépratte, general manager of Fehap, representing this sector. Once once more, we will have to fight to obtain fair treatment as the needs for reception continue to grow and the shortage of professionals intensifies day by day”.
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