There is no specific date when workers of the Ministry of Health will begin to receive the salary increase of Q1 thousand 200 per month announced by the authorities 21 days ago. According to the portfolio, payment approval must have the approval of President Bernardo Arévalowhich was not contemplated in the process and could delay the delivery of the benefit to the health.
It was indicated that a team of the Directorate of Human Resources and the Financial Administrative Directorate of the Ministry has held meetings with the Technical Directorate of Budget of the Ministry of Finance and with the National Civil Service Office (ONSEC) to review the file of the salary increase, prior to officially send it.
“In these meetings it was mentioned that a new process was added, which indicates that the route of the file includes the approval of the salary increase by the President (Bernardo Arévalo),” it was reported, in addition to several changes to the budgetary opinion.
To pay the increase to health workers, there will be a reorganization of the portfolio budget, as established with finance, and It would be until the last four -month period of the year that information about which programs will be debited to fulfill this commitment could be had.
On May 14, Minister Joaquín Barnoya announced that the economic benefit will be retroactive as of January, in compliance with article 140 of Decree 36-2024, General Budget Law of Income and Expenditures of the State for Fiscal Year 2025.
The increase of Q1 thousand 200 per month for workers represents an economic impact of Q652 million 651 thousand 200 In the portfolio budget. On the other hand, a single bonus of Q2 thousand for contractors was also offered, which means An expense of Q66 million 322 thousand.
Uncertainty
In the union of university professionals of the related and collateral health sciences, they are not certain when the increase will begin to be received, according to Abner Vásquez, doctor, lawyer and general secretary of the group. The guild is dissatisfied with the sum, he adds, because the offer by the authorities was Q1 thousand 800.
“We do not agree with the amount of the increase, but there the key is closed; we go for the next part of the document, which is the reallocation of all workers,” he says.
Article 140 also sends the Ministry of Health to carry out the reclassification of the personnel, the continuation of the transfer of temporary contractors to permanent line, and to increase the amount of the study scholarships for the Epesists of the Medicine career. This last payment process began on May 27, according to the administrative direction of the portfolio.
On the transfer to the permanent line, offering to the professionals, reaches only 400, when contractors are about 11 thousand, According to the doctor. Of the rest of the workers, there are about 19 thousand that are pending the process. In citations before deputies of the Congress of the Republic, the representatives of the Ministry have indicated that the intention is to transfer this year only 13%.
The MSPAS has approved a salary increase for permanent personnel and an economic incentive for contractors. ✅
This figure triples the increase to the minimum salary authorized this year, and reaffirms our commitment to dignify the health community without affecting the … pic.twitter.com/zjaz7Ozfoh
– Ministry of Public Health (@minsaludguate) May 15, 2025
The other demand
While the payment date of the increase is defined, doctors and professionals of the related sciences ask that an amparo be granted to guarantee equality, in salary issue, for workers.
This is because, in 2023, according to Vásquez, the health authorities of the last administration negotiated with the National Union of Health Workers of Guatemala (SNTSG) an increase of Q1 thousand 300 per month for operational workers; However, for Professionals the agreement was to give them Q300.
For that reason, they placed an amparo that year, and now they seek that the fifth multicultural court of the first civil instance grant it.
Vásquez argues that the SNSG does not represent the health profession guild, in addition to the agreement signed between union and the government of Alejandro Giammattei does not comply with the opinions established by law, and that was what they presented before the judge two weeks ago.
José Ernesto Galdámez Samayoa, of the Board of Directors of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Guatemala, mentions that as a conglomerate support the union of professionals, and that The amparo has already toured all the legal path.
He adds that the action seeks to order the Ministry of Health to give doctors and related professionals the same salary increase that was granted in 2023 to other workers, and that this does not quarrel with the increase received by the other staff.
It is sought that the benefit be retroactive and, according to Vásquez calculations, to professionals are owed around Q33 thousand and professional technicians, Q12 thousand, From 2023 to date.
Doctors’s salaries and fees
Barnoya reported during his interpellation in Congress that by 2024 doctors working in the health system added 8,45. 72.2% were permanent personnel, while 27.8% worked by contract.
The monthly salaries and fees, base amount and bonds, for this group of professionals were the following:
- Professional I – Q18 thousand 526.46
- Professional II – Q19 thousand 328.40
- Professional III – Q20 thousand 136 .23
- Chief Professional – Q20 thousand 938.17
- Chief Professional II – Q21 thousand 745.99
- Chief Professional III – Q22 thousand 547.93