Healthcare workers in the Republika Srpska are calling for urgent negotiations with the Government and the relevant ministry. They are demanding that the labor prices for 2025 be determined and defined in order to improve the material status of healthcare employees and stop the outflow of medical workers.
Representatives of three professional unions representing doctors, nurses and technicians, and non-medical workers in the healthcare sector of the RS have sent a letter to the Government and the Ministry of Health of the RS requesting urgent negotiations on increasing salaries for employees in this sector. They remind that salaries in the healthcare sector have not been changed for more than two years and that patients are being cared for by underpaid workers.
МIRKO Šerbedžija, Professional Union of Nurses and Technicians of the RS
“If we take a nurse with the lowest coefficient, she has a salary of around 1,240 KM. When we exclude hot meals and holiday pay, that nurse does not even receive the minimum wage. If we are thinking about the future of the healthcare system of the RS, we must increase salaries, we must somehow suppress this inflation.”
They say that it is necessary to initiate a collective bargaining process and adopt a new act on the cost of labor, demanding an increase in the current amount.
JOVICA MIŠIĆ, Professional Union of Medical Doctors of the Republic of Srpska
“Currently, our labor price is 159.5. We are demanding that the labor price be increased to at least 200.”
There is still no response from the Government to the letter they sent three days ago, and the relevant ministry did not respond to our inquiry today either. The largest health institution in the Republic of Srpska says that they are trying to retain workers, and vacant positions are being filled with young staff.
Vlado Džajić, Director of the University College of the Republic of Srpska
“What is devastating at this moment is that we have announced scholarships for children in secondary medical school and that the number of students who have applied for the position we planned to stay and work has not been as high as we had planned. So far, we have had no problems, at this moment we have a sufficient number of nurses, but as I said, we are looking ahead.”
Three professional unions remind the authorities that the Law on Salaries of Healthcare Employees stipulates that the Government, during the preparation of the RS budget and the financial plan of the Health Insurance Fund, conducts negotiations with representatives of representative unions on the cost of labor for the following year.
