November the 4th, 2024 – A strike by Croatian healthcare professionals is on the horizon as demands still haven’t been met by the powers that be.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Zajedno/Together union has announced a planned strike of Croatian healthcare professionals after negotiations with the government and the Ministry of Health failed miserably.
They are still asking for amendments to the regulation on coefficients, i.e. higher salaries. There is an intense sense of dissatisfaction among Croatian healthcare professionals owing to the current base rate, and the president of the aforementioned union, Krunoslav Kušec, recently revealed more for N1’s Novi Dan/New Day.
“The basic salary paid to Croatian healthcare professionals is currently 1,200 to 1,300 euros per month. The management structures of this country very quickly raised their salaries to match the EU average, and what did they give us? Crumbs. Our health is of paramount importance,” Kušec told N1.
He added that the Zajedno union has been warning about the problems faced by Croatian healthcare professionals for years now. He also explained why no agreement had yet been reached in the negotiations with the government and the Health Ministry, and what exactly they were seeking and continue to look for.
“There was absolutely no understanding, just pure bureaucracy. We had some numbers of our own that would be appropriate. We were looking for a coefficient of 2.35 for those who have a higher vocational education”, he revealed.
Kušec also revealed that concrete preparations for the strike by Croatian healthcare professionals have already started and that there unfortunately will have to be a stop put to normal work.
“We’re now very close to going on strike, and that strike by Croatian healthcare professionals will last until our demands are finally actually met. Yes, there will be a work stoppage. Magnetic resonance imaging, CT scans, and dealing with laboratory samples will not be performed. Complete diagnostic workups will also be paused. Only emergency patients will continue being treated.
I feel extremely sorry for the patients who have to cope with this situation, but we truly have no other choice. We tried to avoid another strike and we still do want to avoid it, but we absolutely need the understanding and intervention of the government,” he concluded.
