Doctors reach agreement on contract: average pay rises of 560 euros a month

An agreement has been reached on the 2025–27 contract for doctors and healthcare managers. The contract was signed unanimously at ARAN shortly after midday, marking the start of the renewal season for managerial roles in the public sector as well, following the conclusion of the negotiations for other sectors. Paolo Zangrillo, Minister for the Public Administration, expressed his satisfaction: “Another commitment fulfilled,” he commented, “caring for citizens begins with caring for those who look after them.” The agreement covers the 137,871 healthcare managers – the vast majority of whom are doctors – who will receive an average pay rise of 560 euros gross per month: 393 euros, which applies to everyone, comes from the basic contractual allocations, reflecting the 5.4 per cent increases envisaged for the entire public sector in this sector, whilst the remaining 167 figures will in fact vary in individual pay packets as they depend on additional resources for allowances. “It is a contract that makes a tangible difference to the organisation of work, professional responsibilities and safeguards,” comments ARAN President Antonio Naddeo.

Given the fast pace that has now become the norm for this round of negotiations – albeit unprecedented in the long history of public sector pay negotiations – the agreement comes just over seven months after the final signing of the previous three-year deal, which took place on 27 February at ARAN. The actual negotiations began on 29 April, and thus took just over four months, excluding the summer break: a rapid pace, surpassed only by that of the agreement for nurses and other staff in the sector, signed on 29 July after three months of negotiations at the public sector bargaining agency led by Antonio Naddeo.
As is always the case with the 2025–27 contracts, signed for the first time during the three-year reference period, the pay rises will not all appear in employees’ pay packets straight away, as the contract provides for a phased implementation over the three years: the final stage, comprising the last 33 per cent of the contractual pay rises, will therefore come into effect on 1 January 2027.

Another of the new measures introduced by the agreement, also in the economic sphere, provides for a system of incremental pay rises based on experience, starting from the third year, subject to a positive performance review. Any remaining funds from supplementary collective bargaining may be used to finance corporate welfare schemes, in a further move aimed at promoting this increasingly important tool in the collective bargaining toolkit, despite general public finance regulations that continue to restrict its extensive use.

Other aspects addressed in the text also introduce, amongst healthcare managers, new provisions developed in other collective agreements. This is the case with the provisions on psychological support and legal representation in the event of assaults – modelled on the nurses’ collective agreement – and the recognition of allowances for days taken as annual leave, an issue affecting the entire public sector following court rulings that had overturned the old restrictions. On this point, to resolve the dispute, the contracts will probably require primary legislation, which was already attempted without success during the conversion of the latest Public Administration Decree. More specific, however, is the rewriting of the provisions governing the setting of fees for intramural private practice, set out in the final articles of the text.
Meanwhile, within the sphere of public management contract renewals, the area of local government functions is gaining momentum, with its policy document now having taken its final form.