The changes demanded by the nurses in the public health sector are going to cost around 40 million Euros per year, and the government will not make decisions under the threat of strike action, said Finance Minister Haris Georgiades in comments to the state broadcaster.

Work is underway to make the public health system more efficient, he said. The situation today is that a clinic might hire five doctors and three nurses, all of whom have to be approved by two ministries, the Cabinet and the House of Representatives. Nowhere else in the world do hospitals operate like this, and these problems have to be solved before more financial resources are given to workers, said Mr. Georgiades.

Statistics show that the work in the hospitals has not actually increased and there has been no decline in the number of employees, despite the nurses’ claims, said the minister.

If the government agrees to the nurses’ demands to increase wages for second-tier educated workers, it would open up the floodgates for other state employees to demand increases, like the police, he said.

Recently, the government agreed to improve working conditions for health workers after the doctors went on strike, and now temporary short-term employees have more of a future. Since then, the nurse’s union gave the green light to its board of directors to decide on an indefinite strike.

The right to strike is sacred, but the public’s right to health is even more sacred, said Health Minister George Pamborides.