Agency for Medicines of BiH Earns 12 Million, Employees Have Lowest Salaries

(Patria) - The situation in the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of BiH is far from being resolved, and recent reports that the Agency is seeking a 20 percent salary increase due to computer work have reignited an old story.

Ramo Hrustemović, president of the Trade Union of the Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices of BiH, points out that the Agency is not a bureaucratic institution, that it brings money into the budget, around 12 million annually, and very little of that is allocated for employee salaries.

“Due to the poor financial status, at the initiative of the Agency's Trade Union and in cooperation with the relevant Minister of Civil Affairs, we have initiated the possibility of finding a salary increase. The Agency was founded in 2009, and its Control Laboratory, based in Sarajevo, operates within it. The Agency's scope in the field of medicines is broad, including issuing authorizations, placing medicines on the market, renewals, revocations and amendments, laboratory testing of medicine quality and providing expert opinions, reporting or approving clinical trials and monitoring adverse drug reactions, as well as pharmaceutical inspection tasks,” Hrustemović notes.

One of the goals for which the Agency was established is the establishment and supervision of a single market for medicines and medical devices, as well as their availability throughout BiH.

“A Draft Decision on salaries based on the complexity of tasks for positions in the Agency for Medicines of BiH has been proposed. This Decision establishes a supplement to the basic salary for employees based on complexity and responsibility, and it covers all healthcare professionals of the Agency.

In the same Decision, Article 1 establishes a salary supplement for employees with higher education who perform complex IT application tasks. Someone clearly wanted to present these IT tasks from this Decision as the Agency seeking salary increases for computer work, which is, of course, not true. I ask the Agency's Professional Council, led by Vedran Marčinka, which has truly begun to address employee salary issues in its mandate, to use its influence and honest intentions to help us realize this Decision,” Hrustemović notes.

The Trade Union emphasizes that they were particularly surprised by the fact that they learned about this Decision from the media.

“The Agency for Medicines is celebrating its founding anniversary this year, and it is not our intention, but if our demands are not met, a strike could occur,” Hrustemović states.