The Independent Union of Health Workers, Administrative Technical Staff, and Technical Staff has announced potential protests if salary harmonization with the minimum wage does not occur.

During a press conference today, Bobby Bojcevski, the national coordinator of the Independent Trade Union, stated that the protest would involve closing public health facilities for three hours during breaks, with only emergency cases being attended to. The specifics of the protest implementation will depend on the agreements reached by union representatives in the coming days.

Bojcevski highlighted the Minimum Wage Law’s transitional and final provisions, which require the harmonization of collective agreements within six months. As the collective agreement for health activity is currently not in line with the minimum wage law, except for jobs with the lowest degree of complexity, the union is requesting that the minimum wage, multiplied by the workplace coefficient, serve as the basis for calculating health workers’ salaries. This request is in accordance with the Law on Minimum Wage.

Kristina Olevska, president of the Independent Trade Union from GOB “8 Septemvri” and a nurse at Interventional Radiology, drew attention to the issue of individuals working on a contract even after 13 years. She emphasized that this longstanding problem could significantly impact the continued functioning of health services, especially in outpatient clinics, polyclinics, and hospitals, where one employee often covers the workload of three due to a severe lack of staff.

If this problem remains unresolved, it could pose a serious challenge to daily health service operations.