Ambulance drivers and paramedics in Croatia's capital Zagreb went on strike on Wednesday morning, demanding that their salary grade is equalised with other medical personnel working at hospital emergency departments.

The problem arose in 2011 when ambulance staff were split off from the rest of emergency medical services, which meant that the government-set salary coefficient – used to calculate salaries in all public services – ended up set lower compared to their hospital-based colleagues.

This means that ambulance drivers and paramedics are paid 2,000-3,000 kuna (€270-€400) less on average compared to their hospital-based counterparts.

Zagreb is served by 41 ambulance teams, which includes some 120 drivers and paramedics, who perform hundreds of interventions on a daily basis. According to the ambulance union’s figures, reversing the 2011 decision and raising salary coefficients for drivers and paramedics would cost some 2 million kuna (€269,000) per year.

The strike, which their union said would last until their demands are met, started at 6 am on Wednesday. This means only 30 percent of ambulance teams will be at disposal during the strike.

In a last ditch effort to prevent the strike, the recently appointed Health Minister, Vili Beros, held a two-hour meeting with the ambulance union on Tuesday, and offered a compromise solution, along with some ten days for union members to decide whether they would accept the offer.

Also on Wednesday, Beros met with physicians’ associations to discuss the growing issue of unpaid and unregulated overtime. Burdened with work amid chronic staff shortages, hospital physicians are often forced to work more than the 48 hours set in their contracts, leading to thousands of hours of unpaid and unregulated overtime hours at hospitals across the country.

Some physicians have already filed lawsuits demanding overtime pay, and after Croatia’s Supreme Court ruled last year that physicians are entitled to be paid at regular rates for overtime, some estimates said that the potential liability for the government might total 1.5 billion kuna (€200 million).

“We discussed forming a working group to draft new regulation of working hours for doctors, we expect that the group would be formed next week, and would continue holding regular meetings every week thereafter,” head of Croatia’s chamber of medicine, Kresimir Luetic, told N1 after the Wednesday’s meeting at the ministry.

(€1 = 7.44 kuna)