May 4, 2023 - Under the motto "We too are healthcare," nurses, technicians, and non-medical staff held peaceful protests in front of four hospitals in Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik on Wednesday, demanding decent wages for their work and improvement of their labor and legal status.

As 24Sata writes, these half-hour protests were held in Zagreb - in front of the Merkur and Dubrava clinical hospitals, in Split in front of the KBC, and in Dubrovnik in front of the general hospital there.

The protests were organized by the Croatian Professional Union of Nurses and Technicians and the Independent Union of Health and Social Care Employees. Croatian medical staff, as well as non-medical staff working in healthcare institutions, are dissatisfied that their membership did not receive a ten percent increase in coefficients according to the government decree last week, which Croatian doctors did receive when they went on strike recently. The increase for other medical and non-medical staff was between 3 and 5.4 percent.

This time, unions have announced a series of mini-protests starting Wednesday, May 3. They will protest every day from 11 to 11:30 a.m., during the daily break, in front of various hospitals throughout Croatia.

The protests will be held until May 12, when, on the International Day of Nursing, a large, central protest has been announced in Zagreb.

Maids, cooks, laundry workers, and other non-medical staff in the healthcare system will join the nurses and technicians in protest activities. They are also demanding an increase in salary coefficients by a minimum of ten percent and an improvement in the labor and legal status.

The president of the Independent Trade Union, Stjepan Topolnjak, also said that there is a principled determination of the trade union to strike if the Government and the relevant ministry keep ignoring their demands.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.

April 29, 2023 -  Croatian nurses and other medical staff have announced protests starting next week, demanding better regard for their rights, including pay. They emphasize the importance of all medical staff who aren't doctors. Croatian doctors have recently negotiated improved conditions for themselves as well.

After the Croatian Professional Union of Nurses and Medical Technicians announced protests for next week, the same was confirmed today by the Independent Union of Health and Social Care. "Together with the sister union, we will start protest activities. We demand equality and dignity for all workers in the system, and we ask that the minister and the prime minister finally recognize that there are other workers in the health system besides doctors. These are health and non-health workers who are needed by the system and patients," said Stjepan Topolnjak, president of the Independent Union of Health and Social Care, report HRT/Index.

Commenting on the government's recent decision to increase the coefficients in health care, Topolnjak said that it is an increase only for doctors and "the return of the coefficients that were reduced by 3 percent for bachelor's degrees and intermediate professional training in primary and secondary health care in 2013".

"We are asking for at least 10 percent for all workers in the healthcare system," he emphasized.

He announced that "peaceful protests will now be organized during the break that everyone has the right to." They will start with protests on Wednesday in front of hospitals in Split, KB Dubrava, and OB Dubrovnik and will go on every day until May 10.

Croatian nurses and medical technicians will then organize a larger protest rally on Ban Jelačić Square in Zagreb on May 12, on International Nurses Day. First, however, they need to agree on this with other unions and the Chamber.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated News section.