Negotiations between three health workers' unions and Health Minister Rajko Ostojic on a new collective agreement, which began on Wednesday morning, broke off in the afternoon at the request of two of the unions and were to resume next Tuesday.
According to union representatives, two of the three unions requested consultations on the question of how long the negotiations may last. The leaders of the doctors' union and the nurses' union, Ivica Babic and Anica Prasnjak respectively, said Minister Ostojic suggested that negotiations may last until the end of the year, while the unions said they had permission to negotiate until the end of August.
The head of the independent health and social security workers' union, Spomenka Avbersek, said that this was an unnecessary procrastination, noting that she had all the necessary authority to negotiate.
Babic and Prasnjak reiterated threats of a strike if the negotiations failed, with Babic emphasising that 70% of doctors had withdrawn their consent to overtime work and that their number would increase to 80% after they returned from summer holidays.
