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Union: New Law Could Abolish Salary Supplement for Healthcare Workers

The Union of State and Local Officials and Employees of Croatia warned on Wednesday that the proposal of the new Health Care Act anticipates the possibility of a salary supplement for healthcare workers with above-average work results, while at the same time the proposal of the Public Service Salary Act could abolish that supplement.

The Ministry of Health has recently sent a Draft Proposal of the Health Care Act for public consultation, which stipulates that healthcare workers can receive a salary supplement for above-average work results, and the criteria for determining above-average results and the method of payment of the supplement will be regulated by the Government within six months of the law coming into force, the union stated in a press release.

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The intention to reward officials and employees in the healthcare sector is commendable and represents a common theme in the political programs of almost all previous Governments that have constantly wanted to reward state and public service employees who perform better and more than others, but have always lacked some law or regulation to enable it, the union emphasizes.

The union reminds that the Government, through the Law on State Officials and Employees and the Law on Salaries in Public Services from 2001, prescribed the obligation to adopt regulations that would establish the criteria for determining above-average work results and the method of payment for work performance, but such regulations were never adopted.

Evaluation of Individual Performance

In the meantime, only 17 years later, the Government again prescribed, this time through the National Reform Program, the obligation to draft the Law on Salaries in State Service and the Law on Salaries in Public Services. The purpose of these laws is to enable the evaluation of individual performance of employees in state administration and public services through salary movements linked to performance, including above-average work results.

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Such laws foresee in transitional and final provisions the repeal of laws and regulations that regulate the issue of salaries and rewards at the level of individual bodies and activities, in order to enable the establishment of a unified salary system.

Therefore, it is surprising that the Draft Proposal of the Health Care Act anticipates regulating the issue of rewarding for above-average work results, which should be the subject of the Public Service Salary Act and for which partial solutions should be repealed.

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If this happens, it could occur that the Government submits the proposal of the Health Care Act and the proposal of the Public Service Salary Act to the Parliament, so that the first law proposes a solution that would then be repealed by the second regulation, warns the union.