MOSTAR: GOVERNMENT OF HERZEGOVINA NERETVA CANTON APPOINTED NEGOTIATING TEAM FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH HEALTH TRADE UNIONS

MOSTAR, NOVEMBER 2 (ONASA) – At the proposal of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, the Government of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNC) appointed the Negotiation Team of the Government of the HNC for negotiations with representative trade unions for the health sector.
The appointed team is composed of representatives of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection of the Croatian National Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Finance of the Croatian National Academy of Sciences, the Office of the Prime Minister of the Croatian National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Health Insurance of the Croatian National Academy of Sciences, SKB Mostar, KB Dr. Safet Mujić, The General Hospital of Konjic, the City of Mostar, the City of Konjic, the City of Čapljina, the Stolac Health Center, the Jablanica Health Center, the Government of the West Herzegovina Canton and the FBiH Ministry of Health, the Government of HNK announced.
“We have already communicated on several occasions that the Government of HNC, as one of several factors in the healthcare system of this canton, understands the union demands of healthcare workers. The government is ready to fulfill its part of obligations through the amendments to the Budget for 2023 and the proposed budget for 2024 through a correctly achieved, realistically sustainable agreement of all employers and trade union partners”, the statement states.
They state that upon assuming office in 2015, the Government found an “extremely ungrateful” state of finances.
“In the meantime, the Government resolved all doubts, consolidated public finances, responded to all requests that came in, succeeded in opening the development dimension of the Budget, created quality prerequisites so that today it could plan and fulfill its part of obligations according to the demands of health workers”, highlighted is.
It goes on to state that the extremely correct and responsible behavior of the Government of HNC towards the social partners, the unions of budget users, for which it is the sole employer, has been unquestionably witnessed over the past eight years, with as many as sixteen branch collective agreements signed.
The level of relations and mutual respect between the Government and the social partners was confirmed, according to the Government, at the last meeting of the Prime Minister and relevant ministers with the leaders of all six trade unions of users of the cantonal budget.
“In order to be able to respond to the demands of health workers, who in the initial request require more than 50 million BAM of additional budget funds, it is mandatory that other factors in the health system of HNC, which are clearly listed in the official notification of the NES of SKBM on holding a strike, assume their share of responsibility, as it is regulated by law. This is the only way to get out of this situation as quickly as possible and with as few problems as possible and avoid all the negativity that trade unionism brings with it, and above all the suffering that will be felt most by the patients”, said the Government of HNC.
In the end, they called on all participants in the health system of the Canton (employers in the health system of HNC) to assume their part of responsibility in order to avoid any unwanted scenario. N.H.