The Icelandic Medical Association (LÍ) negotiation committee will meet with representatives of the state at the facilities of the State Negotiator today in the afternoon to discuss the ongoing wage dispute. The last meeting was on Monday. The strike among 160 of LÍ’s doctors, which began at midnight on Sunday, continues.
“We didn’t make any progress on the salary issue so it was fruitless,” Sigurveig Pétursdóttir, who chairs LÍ’s negotiation committee, told mbl.is of Monday’s meeting. “Everyone wants to reach an agreement but we still have a long way to go.”
Dv.is reports that doctors are demanding a 30 percent salary increase while the state is offering 3 percent.
Tens of operations will be postponed at FSA, the hospital in Akureyri, North Iceland, today because of the strike.
The emergency room of Landspítali National University Hospital in Reykjavík was packed yesterday and a long queue formed outside the after-hours healthcare center Læknavaktin in Kópavogur, which remained open in spite of the strike.
The strike will continue until midnight tomorrow. Minister of Health Kristján Þór Júlíusson told ruv.is that he has not considered imposing a law to end the strike.
“We all agree that doctors’ wages must be corrected. But by how much … is a matter of negotiation. It has long been disputed and it will take some more time to settle the dispute,” Kristján commented.
