The two largest unions in healthcare, which bring together nurses and technicians, on Friday protested outside the Health Ministry to warn of possible strike action if the ministry continues to ignore their demands and unilaterally make decisions.

About fifty stewards of those unions arrived from various regions of Croatia for this protest rally in Zagreb. They accused the ministry of failing to comply with the provisions of the branch collective agreement or to address the issue of pay coefficient for nurses and non-medical staff.

They have ignored all our demands, decisions are being adopted unilaterally without any dialogue, union leaders Anica Prasnjak and Stjepan Topolnjak said.

“There will be a strike if the ministry continues to ignore us ” the head of the nurses’ union Prasnjak added.

She particularly underlined the failure to solve the problem of the shortage of nurses, stating that for instance, Dubrovnik alone needs an additional 375 nurses. Prasnjak’s union has 10,600 members.

“Minister Beros mostly advocates for doctors, but he should care for all the workers in the system,” said Stjepan Topolnjak from an independent trade union, which has around 10,000 members and brings together both health and non-health personnel in the system.

The organisers of the protest were invited to a meeting at the ministry, where they will offer a deadline by which the mentioned problems must be resolved.