The Minister of Health and Social Protection of the Republic of Srpska, Alen Šeranić, stated that a special collective agreement for employees in public institutions in the field of healthcare brings important improvements to the work process and increases workers’ rights. Among other things, an increase in compensation for night work from 30 to 40 percent is envisaged.
“We have also accepted the union’s proposal that for positions at special risk, the compensation amounts to two to 20 percent, and it was up to 15 percent,” said Šeranić.
He stated that a particularly important measure is to provide healthcare workers working in extremely underdeveloped and underdeveloped local communities with a compensation of up to 25 percent of their salary.
“This was also a request from the mayors of smaller local communities so that they could attract and retain healthcare workers,” added Šeranić.
He stated that, at the request of the union, the collective agreement also approved compensation for ambulance drivers for performing that work.
“We have also defined that health institutions are obliged to adopt a regulation on determining incentives for health workers within 60 days so that everything is clear and transparent. We had good cooperation with the union within the framework of negotiations,” emphasized Šeranić.
Šeranić reminded that the salaries of nurses and technicians will be increased by 100 BAM from the January salary, which was done at the request of the union.
“An additional 15 million BAM will need to be allocated for this, and that money will be provided. We must not get into a situation, as happened in one health center, where coefficients for health workers are being reduced. That must not be questioned,” said Šeranić.
He stated that the 10 percent salary increase for all health workers from April 1, at the initiative of the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, will project what the union expected in terms of salary increases.
Šeranić said that the Republika Srpska needs to provide an additional 53 million BAM for salary increases in the healthcare sector, and added that the Ministry will continue to work on improving the economic and social position of healthcare workers.
