CS Government: By announcing a Strike, Healthcare Workers are violating Collective Agreements

The Government of Sarajevo Canton accepted at the session the Information from the Ministry of Health regarding the failed negotiation process with the Union of Healthcare Workers in CS, the Union of Doctors of Medicine and Dentistry in CS and the Union of Nurses and Technicians in CS.

The government maintains its position that by announcing a strike in this period, the aforementioned unions violate the provisions of the signed collective agreements, and says that it will not allow the provision of health services to citizens to be jeopardized.

The Government clarifies that the collective agreements signed with the aforementioned unions, whose validity period expires on April 1, 2024, clearly specify “that during the validity of the collective agreements, the unions will not call for a strike due to issues regulated by the agreements and if the rights and obligations apply in full or unless otherwise agreed and signed between the trade union and the employers”.

“In view of the above and because the rights and obligations towards the employees are fully settled, there is no legal basis for starting a strike and jeopardizing the rights of our citizens to adequate health care. If the unions decide to take this step, the Government is ready to take all available legal options in order to protect the interests of citizens”, it was pointed out.

The Government expresses its readiness to hold negotiations regarding the request for correction of salaries of healthcare workers at the beginning of next year, that is, three months before the expiration of the valid collective agreements, as prescribed.

They emphasize that they greatly value the contribution of the health sector, and that for the last three years they have been actively working to improve the position of health workers, as well as the conditions for patients, reported the CS Protocol and Press Service.

Among other things, as it is pointed out, at the beginning of 2022, collective agreements were signed with three representative unions in healthcare, which increased the salaries of all healthcare and non-healthcare workers by an average of 26 to 37 percent.

CS Minister of Health Haris Vranić clarified that for this collective agreement, which is currently valid, the CS Health Insurance Institute allocated, beyond the Financial Plan for 2022, an additional 51 million BAM for the salaries of employees in the CS health system.

“At the express insistence of the union, the collective agreements were signed for a period of two years and are in force until April 1, 2024. We emphasize that the collective agreement is fully respected,” stated Vranić.