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Two-Thirds of Serbian Health Workers
Strike Over Salaries, Work Conditions
BELGRADE, May 20 (Reuters) — Two-thirds of Serbia's health and social workers staged a strike on Monday requesting higher salaries, regular payments and better work conditions, local media reported. The strikers were demanding a 50 percent increase in their monthly salaries, a readjustment of wages for all public sector employees and regular payment of salaries, the independent Beta news agency reported.
Serbia's Health Minister Leposava Milicevic, apparently trying to head off the strike, said on Sunday in an interview with local television that health workers would receive a 30 percent increase in their salaries. Stevan Djordjevic, president of Serbia's health and social security trade union, said at a news conference that directors
of hospitals and medical clinics should “remember that their collegues strike in order to preserve professional dignity.”
Health workers in Leskovac, Sabac and Pozarevac did not participate in the action, a strike committee said in a statement. In the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro, health workers said they would stop work for a half hour on Monday to show solidarity with their Serbian colleagues.
Trade union leaders representing employees of the Serbian government and courts were meeting to discuss whether to join the striking health workers, Tanjug reported. According to official statistics, Yugoslavia has 139,885 health workers, and their average monthly salary is 632 dinars ($130).
The health strike comes only two weeks after thousands of workers shut down several factories in the southern city of Nis, protesting taxes and unpaid wages. The strikes coincided with the sacking of central bank chief Dragoslav Avramovic, who had clashed with government ministers over public spending. Avramovic had refused to print money to help cash-strapped state-owned companies, warning it could reignite hyperinflation in rump Yugoslavia, comprised of Serbia and Montenegro. |
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