European Lawmakers File Complaint Over Salaries Of Cuban Doctors In Italy - Reports

Health workers from Cuba who are expected to arrive in the southern Italian region of Calabria will receive only a quarter of their wages, Italian media reported on Wednesday, adding that a group of members of the European Parliament (EP) sent a complaint to the region's authorities

ROME (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th October, 2022) Health workers from Cuba who are expected to arrive in the southern Italian region of Calabria will receive only a quarter of their wages, Italian media reported on Wednesday, adding that a group of members of the European Parliament (EP) sent a complaint to the region's authorities.

In August, media reported that almost 500 medical workers from Cuba would arrive in Calabria to temporarily fill a shortage of local doctors. It is planned that the first Cuban specialists will begin to work in the region at the end of October.

According to the newspaper Corriere della Sera, the head of the region, Roberto Occhiuto, concluded an agreement with the Cuban state agency under which doctors will receive only 1,200 Euros ($1162) per month from the 4,700 allocated by the region. The rest of the funds will be transferred to the Cuban treasury.

Italian member of the EP Laura Ferrara, together with other lawmakers from the Spanish Citizens party and the European People's Party called these conditions akin to slavery and addressed the leadership of Calabria in a letter condemning this agreement, the newspaper reported.

The lawmakers said that the conditions imposed by Cuba on citizens working abroad violated the dignity of the individual and people's fundamental rights. In particular, the politicians noted that the Cuban government introduced an 8-year prison sentence for their citizens in cases of termination of a business trip and failure to return to their homeland.

In his response to Ferrara, Occhiuto accused her of using her membership of the European Parliament to achieve her political goals. He also recalled that Cuban doctors were already working in Italy in the spring of 2020 when they arrived to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.