Police officers in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) can have a medical examination only once during their entire service. The law allows them to do that.
The examination is mandatory only at the time of employment. After that, they can work for 20 years and retire without ever taking a new work capacity test, including a psychological assessment.
“We are the only ones in the world who don’t have a collective agreement, which would include the obligation of a medical examination. We don’t have life insurance, so when a policeman dies on the job, we collect a few BAM for the funeral of a colleague. The authorities, both before and now, have never expressed neither the will nor the desire to engage in any conversation with us at all. Nothing is working.”
This is how the situation in the police is described by Dragan Krvavac, president of the Union of Police Authorities in BiHand an officer of the BiH Border Police.
The problem of medical examinations is also pointed out by the directors of the police and doctors.
The Law on Police Officers of BiH was adopted in 2004 and was last amended 11 years ago.
Mandatory examination outside the law
Darko Culum, Inspector General of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), told that he believes that a mandatory medical examination should be done every three, and at least every five years.
He added that state police agencies should not be required to perform regular systematic examination until the law is amended.
Other civil servants do not have an obligation to have an examination either
The laws and regulations that regulate the status of other civil servants and employees also do not prescribe the obligation of a regular systematic examination. The examination is only mandatory for employment.
Labor Laws of BiH entities of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS) determine that employers in the private sector “may require” a medical examination from workers, in order to determine their health capacity for work, Slobodna Evropa reports.
