Kujundžić: Doctors are the bearers of the activity, without them we cannot adopt a new collective agreement

For about 73,000 employees in healthcare and health insurance, the Branch Collective Agreement (GKU) expires at the beginning of December, and ahead of new negotiations, which are set to begin in October, it is unclear whether the Croatian Medical Union (HLS) will participate in the negotiations as it does not have enough members to be representative, although it is the only one representing doctors in negotiations about salaries and other material rights.

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Health Minister Milan Kujundžić needs to find a solution before the negotiations begin on how to include HLS in the negotiations about the GKU, so that doctors can participate equally with other employees in the healthcare system in regulating their rights, without violating the law.

Professional collective agreement contrary to the law

HLS and medical associations, such as the Croatian Medical Chamber and the Croatian Association of Hospital Doctors, have long been warning about the specificities of the medical profession and their increasing departure from Croatia, seeking a Professional Collective Agreement (SKU) that would separately regulate their rights from other employees in the healthcare system. However, this request is contrary to the Labor Law, and some other unions in healthcare oppose it.

According to the decision of the Commission for Determining the Representativeness of Unions, the Croatian Professional Union of Nurses and Medical Technicians and the Independent Union of Health and Social Care can participate in collective negotiations about the GKU, but not the Croatian Medical Union, as it does not meet the criterion of gathering at least 20 percent of the membership of the total number of unionized workers in a particular activity.

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These are also the three largest unions out of 19, which gather the majority of around 40,000 union members in the healthcare sector.

Doctors are the bearers of the activity

Kujundžić announces that he will meet with the unions next week to see how to resolve this issue, as he believes that without doctors, as the bearers of healthcare activity, the GKU cannot be adopted. “We do not have a magic wand here, but doctors are the bearers of the activity and without them we cannot adopt the GKU,” Kujundžić told Hina.

There are three models for resolving the existing situation, one being an agreement with all unions that doctors be part of the union negotiating team even though they do not have representativeness. The second possibility is a change in the Law on Representativeness, and the third is to resolve the issue of participation in collective negotiations within the framework of the new Health Care Law, which is in preparation.

Given the existing situation and the demands of doctors for the SKU, the government can also resolve the issue of doctors’ material rights through a special regulation. Kujundžić says that such a possibility theoretically exists, believes that the SKU for doctors is a good option and a common practice in most EU countries, but in this it is necessary to “find a golden mean.”

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HLS President Ivica Babić emphasizes that his union has just under 4,000 members and therefore cannot meet the criteria from the Law on Representativeness. However, since there are about 9,000 doctors working in the public sector, even if all were union members, they would only be on the verge of meeting the legal criterion.

Rights of doctors cannot be discussed without doctors

“We demand our place at the negotiating table from the employer, because the rights of doctors cannot be discussed without us. Any agreement on the material rights of doctors without HLS is unacceptable and illegitimate for us,” says Babić.

He states that they are ready for an agreement, and in case of being excluded from the negotiating process, they will organize union actions that have been agreed upon at the HLS Main Board.

Stjepan Topolnjak, president of the Independent Union of Health and Social Care, which gathers part of the healthcare and non-healthcare staff, requested from the minister that due to equal representation of all in the system, doctors be allowed to participate in collective negotiations.

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This union is explicitly against “giving any exclusivity” to doctors through the SKU, but they say they do not want a repeat of the situation from last time, when HLS refused to sign the GKU considering it unfavorable for doctors and claiming that the rights of doctors were agreed upon by “the unions of cleaners and nurses.”

The president of the Main Council of the Croatian Professional Union of Nurses, Ankica Prašnjak, says that it is appropriate to include HLS in the negotiations as doctors are the bearers of the activity. In case doctors receive the SKU, she says, nurses will also demand the same, as they are also increasingly leaving the system for abroad.

Not a single nurse applies for job postings

She warns of cases where not a single nurse applies for job postings in smaller hospitals, claiming that, in her estimation, the hospital system is lacking between 8,000 and 12,000 nurses.

From the decision of the Commission for Determining Representativeness, it is evident that the balance of power has changed between the two representative unions compared to previous negotiations.

The largest number of members, which allows it to independently sign the GKU with the employer, is now held by the nursing union with 12,429 members, while the Independent Union of Health, which used this possibility when signing the current GKU, has since lost about 8,000 members and now counts 10,390 members.

writes Tamara Marinković