More than 1,300 workers of the Zenica Cantonal Hospital to go on strike next month

More than 1,300 workers of the Cantonal Hospital in Zenica will go on strike on October 18, due to, as they stated, catastrophic working conditions.

The Presidency of the Independent Trade Union of Healthcare Workers in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Basic Trade Union Organization of the Cantonal Hospital Zenica, has informed the management of the Zenica hospital that they will go on strike next month, which will last until the workers' demands are met, confirmed for the Patria agency from the Union.

Zenica healthcare workers are demanding the prevention of uneven salary increases for one group of employees compared to other workers at the Cantonal Hospital Zenica, demanding improvement of conditions for performing regular duties and providing healthcare services to patients, also demanding the prevention of the continuous departure of experienced medical staff from the Zenica hospital, as well as the adjustment of healthcare workers' salaries with the consumer price index in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"During the strike, which will last until our demands are met, doctors will not block all departments in the hospital, so that the health of our patients is not endangered. We will admit all patients whose lives are in danger, the Emergency Medicine Department, the Intensive Care Unit, the Transfusion Center will operate, and there will be no blockade in the work of organ explantation activities either," they stated from the Union.

"The pace of work in other departments will be the same as on weekends or during holidays, and diagnostic procedures only if the doctor assesses that it is necessary to do so urgently, while non-medical workers will perform exclusively tasks whose postponement could endanger the patient's life," reads the letter that the Union sent to the management of the Zenica hospital.

The Union reminds that they announced the strike in March, but withdrew from it during the summer months so that the hospital's work as well as employees' annual leave would not be jeopardized.