The Independent Health and Social Care Union and the Croatian Nurses Union said on Monday they stood ready to protest and strike unless the wages of medical and non-medical workers in public healthcare were raised by 10%, just as they have been for doctors.

“Doctors have received everything and we have received nothing,” Anica Prasnjak, the head of the Nurses Union, told Hina.

The union demands that nurses’ wages be increased by 10% by 28 April under the decree on wage indices, just like doctors’ wages, and that their employment status be regulated by law.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic promised doctors’ associations last Monday that their wages will be increased under said decree and that a law on their employment status will be passed.

Prasnjak said a meeting on the decree was supposed to be held at the Health Ministry this week but that no one has invited them yet, and that she has not been officially informed about the rise in wage indices for nurses.

According to unofficial information, the raise would be 3%, “but that is just the restitution of what was taken from us in 2013,” Prasnjak said.

The Nurses Union sent a bill on the employment status of nurses to the government and the competent ministries at the end of March but have received no reply yet, she said, adding that 32,000 nurses work in public healthcare and they stand ready to protest and strike if their demands are ignored.

The Independent Health and Social Welfare Union has 10,000 members, medical and non-medical workers, and they, too, stand ready to strike unless the wages of all health system employees are raised by 10%, its president Stjepan Topolnjak told Hina.

Health Minister Vili Beros met in secret with doctors’ associations and they agreed higher wage indices only for doctors, Topolnjak said, adding that both Beros and Plenkovic are protecting only doctors.

There are 14,000 doctors in public healthcare, which is only 20% of the system’s employees, he said, adding that some of the remaining 80% workers “work for the minimum wage.”