In the coming April, the regional government will approve a decree-law aimed at addressing the situation of research personnel. The autonomous administration is preparing a rule to standardize the employment status across public biomedical foundations and institutes affiliated with the Health Department, particularly in light of a warning from the General Intervention audit that highlights multiple and serious irregularities in the management of staff and hiring at these public centers.
Last Thursday, during the control session, the head of the regional government, Carlos Mazón, announced that the Valencian Government would approve, without delay, this decree-law to provide stability for researchers. According to information obtained by this newspaper, one effect of the new legal framework will be the alignment of salaries not only across all biomedical centers and public foundations in the Community of Valencia but also the harmonization of researchers’ remuneration with the corresponding healthcare staff in their statutory professional categories.
The IIS La Fe, Incliva, Fisabio, the Research Foundation of the Valencia General Hospital, the Research Foundation of the Castellón Provincial Hospital, and Isabial are the six public research institutes in the Valencian Community. All belong to the public instrumental sector, so their staff do not share the same conditions as those employed directly by the Health Department.
Indeed, one of the issues raised by the internal audit is the lack of control over each institution and the need to establish a single regulatory framework. This is one of the focal points toward which the government’s decree-law will be oriented.
The objective will be, first, to establish a uniform and consistent framework for all these bodies.
Beyond eliminating pay disparities for the same job across different foundations—disparities that can reach as much as 5,000 euros in a single job category—it will also facilitate collective bargaining over working conditions.
The decree-law also contemplates that researchers’ pay be aligned with the salaries of healthcare personnel, a provision already reflected in the national Biomedical Research Law. To achieve this, the decree-law will temporarily ease budgetary restrictions on increases to the payroll base.
Moreover, the regional government believes that such a rule will improve working conditions and help curb talent flight, potentially even attracting back researchers who left. In fact, Mazón announced the recruitment of 200 researchers during a recent session in the regional Parliament.