The Ministry of Health proposes An increase of Q1 thousand per month For all workers of the lines 011, 021, 022, and 031, yuN Single Bono of Q2 thousand For advisors 029 and hired under subgroup 18. It is Q606 million that are needed to respond to this increase.
According to Lucrecia Martínez, technical director of the Budget of the Ministry of Finance, it is Q543 million that are needed to cover the salary increase from January to December, and Q63 million for the bonus.
The health proposal was sent to the Technical Directorate of the Budget of the Ministry of Finance, but is below the claim of the health, who demanded an increase of Q2 thousand 500.
To demand the salary increase, the workers announced a series of blockages for this week. This Monday, the affiliates of the National Union of Health Workers of Guatemala (SNTSG), who lifted the measures to recognize them as a majority union to carry out the negotiations.
But en foot follow the announced demonstrations for this April 2 and 3 On the part of the San Juan de Dios National Union, who does not agree with the proposal made for health.
It was reported that the file of the salary increase that worked the portfolio must now go through the analysis of the National Civil Service Office (ONSEC), which could take three weeks in the process.
The demand for the health and that has led them to state, is that it is complied with what is established in article 140 of Decree 36-2024, Law of General Income and Execute Budgets of the State for Fiscal Year 2025, which was approved last November.
The regulations indicate that to strengthen human resource in the health system A salary increase and economic incentive will be givenbut the reclassification of the personnel will also be made, the transfer of temporary contractors will continue to permanent line and the amount of the studies scholarships for the Epesists of the Medicine career will be increased.
A specific financing source is not establishedbut it is indicated that the health portfolio must readjust the operating budget assigned in 2025 to fulfill these commitments.
The demands
Article 140 establishes A salary increase, And at this point the workers request that the increase dignify the healthy ones, since there are people with a salary lower to the minimum established.
The request It was Q2 thousand 500 For 45 thousand 290 workers, which includes permanent personnel – Renglon 011—, Contract staff —Reglon 022 – and wages – Renglon 031—.
However, the proposal that the Ministry of Health sent to the Ministry of Finance is of Q1 thousand 500 less.
According to Carmen Salguero, an analyst at the Health Commission of the Foundation for the Development of Guatemala (Fundesa), there is no certainty of how many people would benefit, because in recent years there have been hiring in different lines.
“The issue of human resources in the Ministry of Health needs automation and digitalization. It does not have it and that is why everything becomes slower, in addition to legal, technical and financial forecasts.”
Carmen Salguero, Fundesa analyst
Another demand is the economic incentive, which would be for contracted workers, given that wages are low and do not have benefits such as Aguinaldo, Bono 14, vacations or social security, according to Carlos Noé Santos Urías, general secretary of the National San Juan de Dios National Union.
The petition consisted In two bonds of Q3 thousand 500: One would be delivered in July and the other in December. But health proposes a unique bonus of Q2 thousand.
With regard to the reclassification of the personnel, it is proposed to transfer to professional positions with university titles, since some perform the functions of Headquarters, but occupy operational places.
There are about 6,200 workers who are in this condition, and the proposal presented by the Santos Urías union is to start with 1,600 that already perform professional functions.
Another demand is to transfer contract staff to permanent places. In the Ministry of Health there are 11 thousand 502 people in the administrative area contracted in lines 029 and in subgroup 18, while in the care area there are 18 thousand 900 in line 182. As established in Decree 36-2024, all must go to line 011, but Neither last year nor in the current one has made any transfer.
However, the capacity of the portfolio allows to transfer this year only to 4 thousand workers, that is, 13%, according to Juan Carlos Oxom, administrative and financial vice minister, on March 10, during a summons with deputies of the will, opportunity and solidarity block (you).
For Carmen Salguero, passing workers to a permanent place is not an automatic process, but requires an actuarial, financial and classification of positions to ensure that each square has financing. Indicates that around 30 thousand places should be created in line 011.
Another issue that the Ministry of Health must meet, as established in article 140, is the increase in the study scholarship for the Epesists of the Medicine career to an amount equivalent to the minimum non -agricultural salary —q3 thousand 973.05. In This point progresses with the contract signing.
According to professors of the Medicine career at the University of San Carlos de Guatemala, the Epesists are responsible for public care in hospitals, under the supervision of resident doctors and service leaders. In health posts, they support the population assistance, where they are supervised by the medical staff in charge of the place. Therefore, they constitute a valuable human resource to support the actions of the Ministry of Health.
For this year, the portfolio planned to receive 1,602 Epesists, which would represent a monthly disbursement of Q5.8 million.
Empty in the budget
According to Ricardo Barrientos, of the Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies (ICEFI), there are empty in the approval of the 2025 budget that harm ministries such as health, since the deputies introduced a series of “anti -technical provisions” that do not specify the source of financing for compliance, as with article 140, and that gives rise to the demands of the health.
“The Ministry of Public Finance is showing a very weak position in the sense that it endorsed all these alterations of Congress without protesting, without denouncing the anti -technic character of many of the articles that are there,” said Barrientos.
In this case, at the time the Ministry of Health readjust its budget, as established in article 140, it is runs the risk of taking off resources to essential programs to meet workers’ demands. “They will have to cannibalize another budget to meet this,” added the analyst.