Nizhny Novgorod doctors are seeking their pensions
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Lawyers of the trade union of healthcare workers of the Nizhny Novgorod region achieved an increase in pension payments to doctors. The court admitted that due to errors of the Social Fund, two health workers received less than 750 thousand rubles. The trade union says that annually fifty similar claims are filed for millions of rubles, and in a number of other regions the number of applications is even higher. Doctors believe that one of the reasons for underpayments is the professional standard for naming positions of healthcare employees – deviations from it often serve as a reason for refusal to increase pensions. They also point out that, contrary to the position of the Supreme Court, residency and additional training of doctors do not count. Lawyers and doctors want to discuss the situation with the Nizhny Novgorod leadership of the Social Fund and propose to resolve disagreements out of court.
The trade union of healthcare workers of the Nizhny Novgorod region sued the Social Fund for 750 thousand rubles. on two claims for accrual of the due pension. As the trade union told Kommersant, half a million rubles were demanded by a nurse anesthetist at the Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics at the University Clinic of the Volga Medical Academy. The woman fought for the right to an early old-age insurance pension, but the regional branch of the Social Fund refused to include a two-year grace period of work at the rate of “a year and a half” in the medical experience.
Another 250 thousand rubles. awarded to an expert from the regional bureau of forensic medicine, for whom the fund’s specialists incorrectly calculated the special length of service for 15 months, which entitles him to early assignment of an insurance pension. In both cases, representatives of the defendants admitted errors in the accruals and did not appeal the court decisions.
But the union notes that in other cases, doctors had to fight for a long time in court to be included in the special work experience during internship and residency. “The Social Fund has developed certain regulations: either they save money, or they refuse for formal reasons. If a doctor does not seek legal assistance, it is difficult to obtain the required payments,” says one of the doctors.
The grounds for early retirement for health workers are 25 years of work experience in rural areas and 30 years in cities.
Often the Social Fund refuses to take into account work in the former republics of the USSR, the period of military service and even regional holidays in the length of service, the Nizhny Novgorod trade union noted.
“The Nizhny Novgorod courts alone receive from three dozen to fifty such claims annually,” Vasily Prikaznov, chairman of the medical trade union, told Kommersant. “In other regions, where there are more members of medical trade unions, the number of applications to the courts is several times higher. For example, in Bashkiria the number of disputes reaches 200 per year.”
In the first half of 2023, lawyers of the Nizhny Novgorod trade union have already filed 22 applications for the calculation of pensions and sued 2.6 million rubles in favor of doctors. For comparison, in 2022, representatives of the fund won in court for 4 million rubles. “It is difficult to understand why in a number of cases the Social Fund denies payments to medical employees. Some types of work experience, such as residency and internship, are often not taken into account,” noted the head of the trade union.
Also, according to him, the additional training time of doctors who continue to receive a salary, from which contributions go to the same pension fund, is not counted. This is explained by the fact that during the study the specialist is not at work and the terms, for example, of advanced training are not counted towards the length of service. However, the physician’s training time must be taken into account according to the Supreme Court’s position.
The failures are partly explained by the slowness of the system itself, the expert says.
The Social Fund focuses on professional standards in the healthcare sector, in strict accordance with which the positions of doctors must be specified. However, the names of professions change periodically, which is why the Social Fund refuses payments. The same refusal can be obtained due to the changed name of the medical institution.
In the outback, doctors of small specialized departments may lose payments due to their affiliation with local hospitals. For example, if the anti-tuberculosis department is not assigned to a district or regional dispensary, although such hospitals were specially created so as not to transport patients long distances and provide them with care locally.
The Social Fund of the Russian Federation did not promptly answer Kommersant’s questions about legal proceedings and the reasons for refusals to doctors. The union plans to discuss the problem personally with the head of the Nizhny Novgorod branch, Arina Sadulina: lawyers and doctors believe that it is easier to resolve disputes pre-trial to save procedural time and legal costs.
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