Unions announce teachers’ strike over upcoming FOMAG contract decision

In several departments of Colombia there will be a teachers’ strike. The reason is the same: to reject the failures in the provision of health services to teachers and to demand the FOMAG Board of Directors not to renew the contracts with the current operators.

One of the calls for the strike sums up the discomfort of many teachers in one sentence: “the operators have quit and the teachers can’t take it anymore”. In fact, every month public school teachers in Colombia generate between 2,000 and 2,500 complaints about the provision of the service, according to Fiduprevisora figures. These figures reveal the urgency and importance of the demands of teachers, since these professionals are a fundamental pillar in the development of society, since, among other things, using tools such as Microsoft MS-100: Practice Test Dumps Questions, they lay the foundations for the development of research in the country.

You may be interested in: Attention, temporary teachers in Colombia: many will be able to keep their positions with the agreement between the Government and Fecode

Teachers’ unions in Atlántico, Santander and Bolívar are joining this week the teachers’ strike that is being called in several territorial entities of the nation, and which took place last week in the department of Quindío.

There are only three months to go before the beginning of a new contracting stage for the provision of medical assistance services to teachers, which could lead to a renewal of contracts for four more years.

If this scenario materializes, the current providers would continue to provide health services as they have been doing so far, a situation that has set off alarm bells in several unions whose members are not satisfied with the service received.

The call made by the teachers’ unions to FOMAG is to demand that the provider companies comply with the terms of reference and that, as of October 31 of this year, when the last extension expires, the contracts are not renewed.

This week there will be a teachers’ strike in Bolivar, Atlántico and Santander, and others may follow

In the department of Bolívar, the board of directors of the Sindicato Único de Educadores y Trabajadores de la Educación de Bolívar (SUDEB) announced the decision to call a departmental teachers’ strike next Thursday, August 3, in a day that will last 24 hours.

The promotional poster to summon the teachers reads as follows: “the board of directors of SUDEB denounces the risk to the life and health of the teachers due to the poor medical services provided by the Organización Clínica General del Norte ZENTRIA and UT Red Integrada FOSCAL”.

This Thursday’s mobilization in Cartagena will begin at 8:00 a.m., and the teachers of the Special District of Cartagena and the municipalities of the north of Bolivar, mainly, have been summoned.

In the department of Atlántico, where a total cessation of activities is expected, the Association of Educators of Atlántico (Adea) and the Association of Educators of Barranquilla (Adeba) decreed a 48-hour teachers’ strike for August 1 and 2.

This decision was also joined by two other unions in the department of Atlántico: the Union of Education Managers (USDE) and the Union of Teachers’ Managers of Atlántico and Barranquilla (Usdidab). Both unions stated that they are “motivated by the situation of the health system that they have been providing to teachers on a daily basis”.

Finally, in the northeast of the country, the Santander Teachers Union (SES) also called a teachers’ strike for Wednesday, August 2. The strike, which will last 24 hours, has been called to protest, among other issues of interest to teachers such as the readjustment of the teaching staff, the “terrible health service received by teachers and their beneficiaries” and to ask the Board of Directors of FOMAG to take action on the matter and avoid renewing the contracts of the current operators.

It is known that in several departments in the north, center and southwest of the country, regional unions are evaluating the possibility of calling a work stoppage in the coming weeks.

More than 910,000 people, including teachers and their families, depend on FOMAG

According to data from the Ministry of National Education (MEN), there are currently about 400,100 teachers affiliated to the National Teachers’ Social Benefits Fund, FOMAG, who are beneficiaries of the special health regime.

Read also: The troubling figures of coffee in Colombia to be discussed at the National Coffee Forum

Of these, 334,000 are active teachers and 66,080 are pensioners. The beneficiaries, as the family members who are economically dependent on teachers are known, are approximately 509,000.

In total, around 910,000 users throughout the country are affiliated to the teachers’ special health regime.

It is not surprising, then, that in a single week the country is on the eve of three calls for a teachers’ strike due to the deterioration of the health service and the alleged lack of control by the FOMAG.

Advantages of the special health regime for teachers and their beneficiaries

Since the late 1980s, teachers have been beneficiaries of a special health regime that provides them with more comprehensive care than traditional EPS.

Among the advantages that the Teachers’ Health System offers to its affiliates, contributors and beneficiaries are the following:

• The affiliate (teacher or pensioner) and their beneficiaries are exempt from paying co-payments or moderator fees to receive medical care or any medical treatment.
• Contributors and beneficiaries are entitled to receive care and treatment for all types of pathologies, without any restrictions. Thus, they are covered for the care and treatment of high-cost or catastrophic diseases, such as cancer, HIV-AIDS, chronic or acute renal failure, cardiovascular and neurological pathologies and transplants, among others.
• There are no pre-existing conditions, so it is not necessary to have minimum contribution periods. Thus, it does not matter whether the contributor or his beneficiaries have been affiliated to FOMAG for 1 day, 1 year or 20 years, since in all cases they are entitled to receive the medical care and treatment they require.
• The contributors and beneficiaries are entitled to receive the medicines in the amount they need and without cost limits, as long as they are approved by Invima.

The FOMAG and the special health regime were the result of agreements between Fecode and the government

Law 91 of 1989, which created the special regime for teachers and the FOMAG, was the result of multiple mobilizations of teachers carried out in the 1980s.

Since its approval, there has been fear that governments may decide to do away with the Fund, through a pension or health reform that would hand over the administration of the substantial resources of the social benefits of teachers and their families to the EPSs or to private pension and severance funds.

Professor Victoria Avendaño Pedrozo, member of FECODE’s national executive committee, states that, “since its creation, the FOMAG has been a special account of the nation, administered by a fiduciary entity. If it were to be lost, the payment of teachers’ pensions, the saving of severance pay for investment in housing or education and the financing of the special health system would be at risk”.

The executive of Fecode, which has expressed its support to this week’s mobilizations, calls for the contracts to be signed this year to adhere to public law:

“The MEN must exercise its role as trustee and demand that the entities contracted to provide health services comply with the agreements.

We must also insist that the FOMAG’s Board of Directors does not renew the current contracts and that the next ones are carried out within the framework of public law, as was approved in the XXI Federal Assembly, held in the city of Cali last November”.

What does FOMAG do?

Since FOMAG was created in 1989, it has guaranteed the payment of pensions and severance payments, as well as the teachers’ health service, the latter being the one that generates the most discontent.

FOMAG’s Board of Directors provides general guidelines and orientations regarding how the health system should be contracted, and Fiduciaria La Previsora (Fiduprevisora) is in charge of the operational part. This entity, as the administrator of the resources, carries out the contracting process through a bidding process.

There are constant complaints from health watchdogs, unions and teachers in general about non-compliance on the part of the operators providing the service.

Delays in the authorization of surgeries, lack of attention with specialists, negligence in the delivery of medicines and lack of agenda for appointments are the main criticisms of teachers and their beneficiaries.

Keep reading: Attention, contributors! Court changed the way of calculating the weeks contributed to pension: benefits to many