05/04/2013 00:00
TW
0
STAFF REPORTER

PALMA
DOCTORS and nurses demonstrated across the Balearics yesterday against attempts by the regional government to force them to take Catalan language exams.

Mass protests took place in the evening at Plaza España in Palma whilst on Ibiza and Formentera, there were demonstrations at midday.
Medical staff are angry that the pro-Catalan speaking Balearic government is placing greater emphasis on their language skills as opposed to their medical ones .

The implications of the protest took on a further perspective yesterday when a key government workers' union in the Balearics (CSI-F) opted to back the demonstration.

Health workers' leader, Manuel Fuster, claimed that appropriately qualified personnel are not being offered fixed contracts because they don't “measure up” to the written exam requirements in Catalan imposed by the regional government.

The CSI-F said that considering there is a growing shortage of medical staff in the Balearics, the local government needs to get its priorities right.
Doctors' Union chiefs, Isidor Torres and Jorge Tera, claimed that there could be “very negative consequences” resulting from the government's obligatory Catalan language policy because professionals could be chosen for their linguistic ability as opposed to their medical skills.

Yesterday's demonstration received the full backing of the opposition centre right Partido Popular which maintains that Catalan examinations were “out of place” in the regional public health system.

Union members had said that most of them already speak and write Catalan to an acceptable level but would have to abandon their work simply to gain the Grade 2 level demanded by the government.

The street protesters carried banners declaring that Catalan should be a complementary skill for medical workers in the Balearics, rather than an obligatory qualification.

Already, said the Doctors' Union, 40 specialists from Can Misses hospital are thinking of leaving as a result of the imposition of Catalan.
Sr Torres said that the professionals have signed a formal complaint saying that their departure, if it happens, will threaten the well-being of people living in the Balearics.