Public healthcare workers plan to strike next week if they don’t receive their salaries by Monday. The healthcare system is in shambles after an apparent hacking attack that put its data system offline. It’s alleged that the hackers have encrypted the data and are demanding a large ransom to restore the system.

Goran Begovic, head of the independent healthcare union in Skopje, said that they will meet on Tuesday to decide whether to strike the next day, if the salaries are not paid out.

Our patience is at an end. We showed awareness about the situation and we are pushing that it is resolved as soon as possible, added Ljubisa Karanfilovski from the SSZFS union, which is also considering a strike. And doctors and staff and the 8th of September hospital in Skopje will hold a brief protest on Monday.

The Finance Ministry is looking for a way to make direct payments to the public healthcare employees, bypassing the FZOM healthcare fund whose system is scrambled.