“Criminal” to dock MDs pay

Diéguez's warning comes in the wake of the PP saying that they were going to ask the Public Prosecutor to investigate a possible misappropriation of public funds during the term of office of the previous Socialist coalition government for it having ignored a High Court ruling about stopping extra salary benefits for Balearic doctors.

Diéguez said that he thought that the PP's intention of having the Socialists investigated on this account was due to a personal vendetta by the current Balearic President, José Ramón Bauzá who reportedly said last Tuesday after a government meeting that he wanted “whatever could be found” to discredit the previous Socialist coalition.

Diéguez nevertheless explained that during the previous Socialist coalition, the agreement reached between the regional Health ministry and health sector staff over cutting extra pay benefits was never drafted in its final form to go before a regional Health Management Board and the measures were therefore never applied.

It was the Health ministry at the time, said Diéguez, who were unwilling to dock doctors' pay because doctors' additional salary benefits were apparently amongst the lowest in the country.

Untouchable
Diéguez therefore claimed that there was no illegality surrounding doctors' salaries and that President Bauzà therefore didn't have a right to make any pay “adjustments”.

He accused the government of using the doctors as innocent “hostages” in a cross-party war, adding that once the Socialists had “freed” the doctors, they would confront the PP government. He pointed out that the same extra salary benefits that the PP said should have been eliminated on the orders of the High Court ruling were still being paid in doctors' most recent pay cheques.

Diéguez furthered that Bauzá's instruction to “dig up” something incriminating could in itself be a criminal offence and that the Socialists were going to look into this tactic with legal advice. Diéguez said that Bauzá was demonstrating a knee-jerk reaction to planned strikes.

Diéguez said that Javier Fons, the President's Chief of Staff and Antonia Perelló, the head of regional legal services were “plotting” with Bauzá to bring former Socialist Health Minister Vicens Thomás into disrepute.