New collective agreement in health sector signed

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Health Zlatibor Loncar and representatives of three representative trade unions in the health-care sector Tuesday signed a new collective agreement with the aim of improving the health-care system.

"Our goal is not to fill the form. Our goal is to improve the health-care system. We are all working for the same purpose," Loncar told a press conference in Belgrade after signing the document.

The real work is yet to come, as we need to improve the health-care service and working conditions so that Serbia could have a health-care system such as both health-care workers and patients deserve, Loncar stressed.

Head of the Trade Union of Health and Social Care Workers ‘Nezavisnost' Zoran Ilic said that the new collective bargaining agreement was more to the point than the previous one.
"We will support every good idea that the Ministry of Health may have," said Ilic.

Head of the Union of Medical Doctors and Pharmacists of Serbia Dragan Cvetic said that the new document was better than the previous one.

Negotiations on the new collective agreement lasted almost three months, but the important thing is that we have managed to protect and improve our rights, said Cvetic.

Zoran Savic, head of the Union of Employees in Health and Social Services, said that the signing of the collective agreement was only the first step towards the goal of creating a better health care system.

Photo Tanjug, O. Toskic