“They oust us like stray dogs”: doctors of Moscow covid hospitals complain about layoffs

The uncooperative are threatened by the police.

Julia Suntsova

A number of doctors now being laid off are outraged by the failure to follow the procedure for terminating employment. Employees are given an ultimatum - they are forced to write a letter of resignation with the wording "of their own free will", and non-residents are also threatened with eviction from dormitories with the police.

Several health workers applied to the Labor Inspectorate and the Prosecutor General's Office, but received a response that unscheduled checks in the capital were suspended (?!).

By law, in the event of dismissal due to staff reduction, employees are first entitled to an offer of equivalent vacancies, and if a person nevertheless decides to quit, severance pay. Changes must be notified two months in advance.

Nurses from the Moscow Clinical Center for Infectious Diseases "Voronovskoye" (Moscow) are trying to be fired in circumvention of the law, and in order to achieve their goals, the administration does not hesitate to put pressure and threaten yesterday's heroic doctors from the red zones.

"In 2020, the Department of Health invited us in difficult times for Moscow. We abandoned our cities, our hospitals, our families, although at that time we didn’t really know what covid was. We had only 27 cases in the region at that time, and a lot of people were already dying in Moscow. We worked in the red zone for days, with four days off a month. During these two years, I saw the family no more than 4 times. So why can't we say goodbye normally, according to labor law, and we'll leave. But no, they kick us out like mangy dogs. They are evicted from dormitories without even terminating employment contracts. They give a few hours to collect things, and if we do not have time, they threaten to send the police. Have we committed some kind of crime in order to send the police to us? Such is the gratitude", - says nurse Tatyana Bushanova.

In clause 3.1 of the Supplementary Agreement dated 06/28/2021. to her Employment contract No. 490 of 04/20/2020. it is said: the contract is concluded with the employee for an indefinite period, that is, it is indefinite.

In this case, if the company sends an employee to idle time, the employee can still go to the workplace and receive 2/3 of the salary; or, if employees are no longer needed, the employer is required to notify them of the upcoming reduction in the number of staff, at least two months in advance, and after dismissal, pay two average monthly salaries; another option - you can dismiss by agreement of the parties, but then the employee is entitled to pay three salaries upon leaving.

The administration of the Voronovskoye Moscow Clinical Center for Infectious Diseases , where nurse anesthetist Tatyana Bushanova worked in the red zone, was not ready to fulfill labor guarantees. Employees in the hospital are forced to leave of their own free will, although the workers do not have such a desire. The legal meaning of this casuistry is, as it were, the voluntary refusal of workers from severance pay.

"The authorities simply do not make contact. Complete disregard. Communicate in an orderly manner through a working chat. On March 26, according to the previously approved work schedule, my next shift was supposed to begin. On the eve of March 25, all employees receive a chat message: our intensive care unit No. 4 is closed and sealed, and we should write a letter of resignation of our own free will or take an unpaid leave for an indefinite period. The room in the hostel must be vacated, otherwise they will be forcibly evicted with the police", - Tatyana Bushanova tells NI.

On March 26, she came to work, since there were no official orders, but she could not get to the workplace - the department was indeed sealed.

"As far as I know, no order of the Mayor of Moscow on the termination of a set of works to prevent the spread of a new coronavirus infection was issued. An order was not issued to reduce the number of staff of the hospital, the employer did not declare a downtime of the enterprise. I asked the head nurse to determine the scope of work. I was told - it's better to quit of your own free will and look for yourself a new job on your own. Or there is a second option: go to work in the "clean zone" - in the buffet. Just be there to avoid absenteeism", - says Tatyana.

Tatyana Bushanova managed to get the work schedule for April. However, from him, she unexpectedly found out for herself that she had been transferred from a shift schedule to a five-day work, and her salary was reduced from 187 thousand rubles to 32 thousand (minus taxes). An additional agreement on the changed working conditions with the nurse was not concluded. At the same time, problems with the hostel began. Clause 3.2.9 of the Labor contract No. 490, concluded with Tatyana Bushanova, states that the employee is provided with free food and hostel for the entire period of the employment relationship (a copy is at the disposal of the editors). The employment contract has not been terminated, respectively, service housing should be attached. However, health workers are being forced to leave every day. This is done roughly, by the hands of the commandant.

"The commandant knocks on the door and demands to release them immediately. On the basis of what are you evicting me if I continue to work and my employment relationship has not been terminated? - we are timidly interested. The commandant's answer, literally: "Sobyanin announced the end of the coronavirus! You need to watch the news!" In general, there is no talk of legal norms at all", - says Tatyana.

By the way, the free food guaranteed to doctors for the period of work has already been canceled. The service bus that ran to the hospital has also been canceled, and the nearest metro station is 50 kilometers from the hostel. For 32 thousand rubles it is impossible to rent a house, eat and get to work. Tatyana could not sit in the buffet for a long time, not even as a barmaid, but simply in order to serve hours. This is not at all like the job of a nurse anesthetist. No other work was offered by management. They simply took and blocked the access control pass for other employees so that they could not go to work because of the turnstiles! Some were threatened with a wolf ticket. In a word, they do everything to force them to leave, the nurse emphasizes.

According to the Moscow operational headquarters for coronavirus on April 27, 760 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in Moscow per day. Hospitalization required 180 patients. 100 people are connected to artificial lung ventilation devices. 16 people died per day with a confirmed diagnosis of pneumonia and a positive test result for coronavirus.

In early April, Moscow Deputy Mayor for Social Development Anastasiya Rakova, referring to the improved epidemiological situation, announced that it was planned to withdraw more than 5,000 beds from the fund for patients with COVID in the capital. Reserve hospitals at the Krylatskoye Sports Palace, the Sokolniki Exhibition Center, the Moscow Shopping Center and at VDNKh will be mothballed. “The huge capacities that were deployed at the peak of the incidence are no longer required,” she said.

The Department of Health of Moscow on Wednesday, April 26, hastened to respond to the complaints of medical workers from the Voronovskoye hospital. The department said that all medical workers of mothballed coronavirus hospitals in Moscow were notified in advance of the end of their employment contract. And in general, hired workers should not be indignant, but understand that work in such hospitals is temporary...

"Work in covid hospitals is temporary, and this was stated in the vast majority of employment contracts. Prior to their termination, health workers were notified of the end of a fixed-term employment contract 3 calendar days in advance. At the same time, they received all the due payments, including for unused vacation" , - the press service of the Department of Health said in a statement. “ Health workers from the regions with all the accumulated experience in combating the pandemic are returning to planned work in their cities”.

Medical workers of the Infectious Clinical Center "Vrontsovskoye", in turn, call the justifications of the Department of Health "a shameless lie":

"They didn’t notify us about the reduction in staff, for the life of me, they didn’t notify us. We want a little. Well, spend your dismissal humanly, as the terms of the contract suggest, we don’t need someone else’s. Those who are now facing such an attitude, of course, are deeply hurt and will never again respond to Moscow's requests for help", - comment the interlocutors of Novye Izvestia.

"We have leadership, like the orchestra of the sinking Titanic - the louder the screams from the lower decks, the louder the music plays. And the captain monotonously repeats, "It all seems to you, it's just that the cleaner knocked over a bucket of water." And so it turned out for us that it seemed. I can't understand how it was a notification? SMS to the phone at 22.00 pm - you are not working from tomorrow, is that it? Maybe I missed something, me and hundreds of my colleagues? Who returned to work? 80% of people left of their own accord under pressure from above. Is there an optometrist in town? We are all blinded sharply and do not see the facts in the "exculpatory note". Not a word about forced dismissal. Not a word about the fact that the hostel was taken away - but since spring has come, you can live in a hut. Not a word about a drastic change in employment contracts that we still (!) have not received in our hands with a clear description of who we are now and what functions we perform", - nurse Margarita Klenova comments on the situation with the layoffs of doctors from covid hospitals.

Nurse Gulnaz Sharifullina was promised a place on the "black list" of the Depzdrav for refusing to go on vacation at her own expense.

Here is the story she shared with Novye Izvestia:

"I am a nurse in the admissions department of the Voronovskoye Moscow Clinical Center for Infectious Diseases to combat Covid-19. When applying for a job, I was offered a daily schedule, hostel, food, transport from the metro station Teply Stan.

On March 15, 2022, when I arrived for my shift, my colleagues and I were verbally informed that the center was closing and there would be no more patients. We were ordered to write an application for paid leave, as well as unpaid leave for 90 days, or offered to quit of our own free will and find another job.

After thinking about the whole situation, I decided to write an application only for paid leave. Because of the refusal to take a vacation at his own expense, the head of the department began to threaten me: “They are not fools in the department, they will do it correctly, according to the law, you will be included in the black list of the city of Moscow,” which means that in the future it will be impossible to get a job in the city according to your specialty. In addition, in my application for paid leave, I refused to write the line “I have no claims for late payments for vacation” (they forced all employees to sign), which caused even more irritation of the management (there are audio recordings). I don’t quite understand why I should write “I have no complaints”, if there are any. As a result, I was sent on vacation one day.

After contacting the law enforcement agencies, the leaders began to behave inappropriately: they block the passes (the employees cannot enter the territory, even the hostel where they live), add them to the black list in instant messengers, make unreasonable reprimands, and exert psychological pressure, says the nurse.

It turns out that a competent nurse who knows her duties, job descriptions, the rules of her work and works according to the letter of the law is something foreign in the system of the Department of Health. It is not the first year that I have observed that only the “close ones” retain all the benefits, the initial high salary and not a truncated schedule.

The management of the medical center created all the conditions so that I couldn’t work like that and quit of my own free will. They changed the work schedule, canceled the dormitory and transport, publicly humiliated me and openly said that I could no longer work, pointed out that I had no right to express my opinion.

When this terrible disease came to the country, taking the lives of people, my colleagues and I fought against it, being in the "red" zone. We risked our health and lives! And now the moment has come when we, doctors, can be thrown out into the street, like waste material? It is unbearable and impossible to continue working in such conditions..."