Paraguayan doctors call new strike after rejecting government pay proposal

Paraguay’s public-sector doctors will strike again on Sept. 21 and 22 after rejecting a government proposal to increase pay through a merit-based salary scale.

The decision came after an assembly of the National Medical Union, or Sinamed, in Asunción. Doctors described the government’s offer as “crumbs,” according to Última Hora. The proposed system would pay more to physicians with greater training and more years of service.

Javier Giménez, head of the Civil Cabinet of President Santiago Peña, said the government wanted doctors to receive better pay, but insisted that the system should reward experience and qualifications. He said the proposed increases would range from 500,000 to 4 million guaraníes, or about $84 to $669, and would begin in January 2027. The plan would benefit about 10,626 doctors, nearly 90% of the public-sector workforce.

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We want doctors to be paid better, but the executive branch's proposal is clear: a merit-based system in which those with better training and more experience earn more.

Doctor Marcelo Galli sharply criticized the proposal during the assembly, calling the government “arbitrary and authoritarian” and accusing it of being “widely corrupt.” The new strike follows a walkout held from Monday through Friday the previous week.

The doctors’ demands include higher salaries, supplies and medicines for hospitals, permanent appointments for nearly 9,000 professionals working on temporary contracts, and other labor benefits. Public-sector doctors currently earn at least 5 million to 5.4 million guaraníes a month, depending on their contracts. They are seeking a 3 million-guaraní increase that would raise the monthly base to 8 million guaraníes. Economy Minister Óscar Lovera has previously said the government cannot finance that demand.

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We have never been treated so badly by a government as this one, an arbitrary and authoritarian government, a broadly corrupt government.