The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, has been vaccinated this Tuesday against covid-19, a fact that has caused a deep malaise in some of the unions in his department since they have been waiting, for two weeks, for the vaccination plan for foreign service personnel that the minister promised to deliver to them on May 19.
Laya went up this Wednesday to your personal Instagram account a photo of the moment in which they administered a dose of the vaccine, without clarifying which one he has received. “A thousand thanks to all the health personnel for your incredible work. What pride of public health, “he stressed.
The minister turned 52 years old last May 22, so it falls within the group of people with ages understood between 50 and 59 years who began to be vaccinated in the middle of last month with one of the licensed vaccines for that age group, they are Jensen, Pfizer and Moderna.
After that, the UGT left a meeting this morning called at 12:00 hours by the general director of the Foreign Service, Alvaro Kirkpatrick, with the unions and has announced in a statement that “will not return to any negotiation or dialogue table until the promised vaccination plan is delivered to us “
“The UGT he is very happy of the vaccination of the Minister. Since as of today there is no vaccination plan promised by Ms. González Laya at their meeting on May 19 with all the trade union centrals, the UGT has abandoned the meeting called by Mr. Kirkpatrick no agenda nor any reason and communicated that will not return to any negotiation or dialogue table until the promised vaccination plan is delivered to us “, is the text to which he has had access Vozpópuli.
A few minutes later, the CSIF union has also left the meeting and at 12:25 hours, the minister herself has sent an email to all Ministry workers abroad in which she says she understands the “concern” that the situation of the pandemic has generated among foreign service personnel.
In the letter, the head of diplomacy explains that today “more than 80 countries“They have accepted the mechanism proposed by Spain of offering to vaccinate the officials and employees of their embassies in exchange for them to do the same with the Spanish.
And for the countries where vaccination “is not feasible today” and which is the great concern of the unions, Laya announces that it is already being organized “sending Janssen doses“intended for the staff,” once the availability dose in Spain has allowed the Ministry of Health to defend this exceptional route before the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, where all decisions related to vaccination in Spain are taken with the Autonomous Communities “.
“We have also worked with the Ministry of Health so that those of you who have health coverage in Spain you can get vaccinated on the occasion of a trip to our country. On a topic tan sensible like health all effort is little. At least have the certainty that it is a priority of the Ministry “, emphasizes the minister in the letter to which this newspaper has also had access.
Unions CSIF, CCOO, UGT Y SISEX they already sent a letter to Laya last week in which they emphasized that it was “intolerable“That the anti-covid vaccination plan for foreign service personnel, made up of more than 7,000 people, has not been handed over to them.
The four trade union centrals reminded the head of diplomacy that on May 19 he made a personal commitment to issue an informative note – “that same week“, they underlined- on the aforementioned plan and the guidelines to follow for public employees and their relatives abroad when they return to Spain on vacation.
“The lack of action for his part and that of his team is intolerable“, CSIF, CCOO, UGT and SISEX stressed to Laya before demanding compliance with what was promised and”provide certainty to affected public employees“who work for Foreign Affairs.
“The breach of the commitment acquired with all trade union organizations, and the lack of operability of your management team, supposes an improper lack of ethics of the performance of a European Administration “, concluded the aforementioned unions.
Laya’s commitment
González Laya received the union representatives two weeks ago within 48 hours of reporting the death of a counselor at the Embassy in India and from a labor worker at the Quito Consulate, both for covid-19, as reported Vozpópuli.
Unions They’ve been complaining for weeks the lack of a plan to vaccinate Foreign Service workers, both civil servants and workforce, particularly in some countries where there are not even national vaccination plans to which they can benefit in the future.
In her meeting last week, the minister assured that “all public employees who come to Spain will be vaccinated“and he announced that in the next few days he would send the unions a document explaining how the vaccination process will be, including specific solutions for those countries where it is more difficult to access a vaccine. But, for the moment, the text has not arrived .
Reciprocity in vaccines
González Laya explained in mid-May that since vaccination began in Spain, what the Government proposed to be able to vaccinate personnel abroad was the reciprocity to destination countries: they vaccinated Spanish officials and Spain vaccinated theirs. As specified on Thursday, more than 80 countries had agreed.
However, he recognized that there were some countries “with specific difficulties“for those who said that the Ministry was” looking for specific solutions with the Ministry of Health and with the autonomous communities. “” In some cases, the arrival of officials to Spain will be facilitated “for their vaccination and in others” we will seek to bring the vaccine closer together. to those third countries “, he advanced.
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