The health workers' union Zajedno (Together) declared on Tuesday that they will end their strike as soon as the Ministry of Health invites them to a meeting to discuss their demands.

“As soon as we receive an invitation, we are ready to end our industrial action and talk to the ministry about our demands: a 20% increase in the basic salary and the increase of some wage coefficients, as well as the reintroduction of meal allowances,” said the union’s vice president, Sanda Alic, on the second day of the strike.

Alic accused the ministry of ignoring the union and its demands since February and said this had prompted them to go on strike. After the government and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic informed the public that several hundred workers had joined the industrial action, Alic countered with information that more and more workers were joining the strike.

Different data on strike participation

The union announced on Monday morning that, according to the information available, around 4,000 members of this union, mainly employees of diagnostic, laboratory and radiology services and ambulance services, had gone on strike in 58 medical facilities, while the Health Minister Vili Beros said on Monday that, according to hospital directors, less than 600 employees had gone on strike.

Regarding the issue of coefficients, Labour Minister Marin Miletic said on Tuesday that the competent commission for monitoring and improving the wage system in the public sector deals with this issue twice a year and will meet in a fortnight.

We cannot involve the commission once a week to change the coefficients. With the support of the trade unions and the advice of the World Bank, we have already described and upgraded the jobs in the public sector, Piletic told the press after the meeting of the Economic and Social Council on Tuesday.