The Croatian Emergency Services Union has organised a protest on the Zagreb’s St. Mark’s square to warn about the pension system reform and the accelerated retirement plan.

The rally was organised today, on the National Emergency Services day.

“Unfortunately, on this day, instead of talking about the sacrifice of these people, who save lives, we talk about labour problems,” the head of the Independent Union of Health Workers, Sevko Frkatovic, said.

The accelerated retirement plan is to be abolished under the new pension plan which the government will pass later this year.

Frkatovic said that the other intervention services – the police and the firefighters, will not have their accelerated retirement plans abolished. He said that, due to the difficulty and stressful nature of the job, they should not work past 60 years of age. They want the

same rights as their Western colleagues, he added.

According to the data, in 2017, the Emergency Health services in Croatia had about 800,000 out-of-hospital interventions, while some 600,000 were aided in-hospital, which illustrates the great responsibility of the Emergency Services workers.