IZMIR, Turkey — Turkish health care workers in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, enraged that a Dec. 1 bill raising doctors' pay ignored them, have thrown copies of their diplomas in the trash to protest what they call insufficient and discriminatory legislation.

Nurses, medical attendants, lab assistants and other health care personnel will strike throughout Turkey to protest both poor pay and harsh working conditions. Turkey logs about 20,000 new COVID-19 cases and 180 deaths daily but so far no cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19, according to Health Minister Fahrettin Koca. However, Alper Sener, a member of the country’s advisory COVID-19 board, said it was highly likely that the variant will soon be seen in Turkey.

“Particularly in those critical times, when health care workers are doing their best, it should not be forgotten that health care is teamwork, so we want improvement for all health care workers,” Omer Erdem, the communications director for Nurses and Health Care Workers Union (HEPSEN), told Al-Monitor. “While the parliament has passed legislation to improve the salaries of doctors, nurses and other health care workers, who also face and fight the pandemic, were ignored. Today, many nurses working in Turkey are on the brink of poverty.”

Heralded as heroes by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the beginning of the pandemic, Turkey’s doctors and other health care workers have grown increasingly frustrated with the government’s handling of the crisis, a lack of transparency in the data on infections and deaths due to COVID-19 and measures to protect health personnel. On Nov. 23, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB) organized a march from Istanbul to Ankara to protest the brutal working conditions and economic hardships. The White March warned that many medical professionals sought to leave the country where they face low salaries, long hours and violence. Doctors physically and verbally assaulted in the last 11 years number well over 100,000. At least 10 have been killed by patients.