Hospital workers will begin a strike at 7am on Wednesday after a second round of conciliation talks between the government and the doctors' and nurses' unions failed on Sunday, doctors' union leader Ivica Babic told the press after the three-hour meeting.
Babic said that during the strike the hospitals would be operating as on Sundays, and expressed confidence that 70 per cent of the doctors and nurses would join the strike.
Babic said that the unions had entered into the second round of talks with the government to remove any possibility of the strike being declared unlawful.
Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Babic said that their demand was "a collective agreement that will be signed on behalf of doctors and nurses by our unions and not by the third union to our detriment."
The unions said that the strike would last until their demands, including extra payments for on-call duty and overtime, were met.
Health Minister Rajko Ostojic said that today's meeting could not result in "signing anything that would have legal effect as a collective agreement. That would not be fair to others."
