Thousands of self-employed nurses demonstrated in Paris on Thursday in response to a call by a group and two trade unions to demand, among other things, an increase in their basic pay, which has remained unchanged since 2009, French media reported.
Demonstrators in white coats and rain capes gathered at 11 a.m. to march from Place de la Bastille to the health ministry in a deafening atmosphere of music, chants and honks. Their placards read “Bleeding to treat, until when?” and “Valletoux, let the money go”, as well as regional flags, particularly those of Brittany and the Paris region. Alexandra Veiret, one of the two co-chairs of the Angry Liberal Nurses group that initiated the demonstration, stated:
During COVID, we were told that we played a key role in keeping people at home, but after that we disappeared from the radar and were forgotten by Health Minister Ségur, who raised hospital salaries. Today, to keep up with inflation, nurses – which is a predominantly female profession – have to take a succession of patients and sometimes have to choose to perform certain procedures over others.
Sophie Briere, 39, who has been a nurse in the Yonne region for 12 years, said:
We drive a hundred kilometres a day, it’s just amazing how much we spend on petrol. There’s a huge shortage of doctors in our region and we’re making up for it, but we’re not thanked or appreciated.
Philip Vivien, 63, who earns around €2,000 a month, said that “it’s no more than when he worked at the hospital as an orderly”. The protester also added:
The retirement date is too late, 67 years is not possible for me. My legs and back hurt, and the difficulties are mainly psychological: I have to answer all the requests from families and deal with difficult situations.
The nursing charge tariff (AMI, €3.15) has not changed since 2009. Since then, it has only occasionally been increased. For example, Assurance Maladie raised the fixed travel surcharge, which is added to the cost of travel and has remained unchanged since 2009, from 25 cents to €2.75. Fixed rates for daily care for dependents were also changed, which Assurance Maladie says represents “an investment of €700 million” for the period 2019-2024.
After the sit-in, representatives of the organisational collective Angry Liberal Nurses and SNIIL, the sector’s third representative organisation supporting the movement, Health Minister Frédéric Valletoux. Gaelle Cannat, co-chair of the collective, said:
It went well. We are glad we were able to speak to him directly. There was no money left in the treasury to raise our salaries. But he promised us that our demands would be quickly analysed by a working group we would attend.
Two other representative unions, FNI (Fédération nationale des infirmiers) and Convergence Infirmière, have not called for demonstrations but are also demanding urgent wage negotiations. There are about 135,000 self-employed nurses in France.
