Healthcare unions reject emergency preparedness agreement with ministry

Two healthcare unions will not agree to an emergency preparedness arrangement with the Ministry of Finance in connection with a possible strike, Kringvarp Føroya (KVF) reports.

Mary Antonsdóttir, chair of the Faroese Healthcare Assistants’ Association, and Óluva í Gong, chair of the Faroese Nurses’ Association, said in a statement to the media on Tuesday that they had been told the ministry was preparing a general wording on emergency preparedness in the event of a work stoppage.

“We will never agree to this,” Antonsdóttir said.

In the statement, titled “An attack on the right to strike is an attack on democracy”, the union leaders said the proposal sounded responsible on the surface but represented one of the biggest attacks on democracy they had ever witnessed.

Finance Minister Aksel V. Johannesen said he had no plans to establish emergency preparedness by law. He also said he did not recognise the criticism from the unions, which had received information from the Ministry of Finance.