Skopje, 30 March 2023 (MIA) – The health workers' trade unions and the Ministry of Health managed to reach an agreement at a meeting a few hours ahead of their scheduled protest on Thursday.

 “We agreed on a raise of Mden 3.000 for all nurses and Mden 2.000 for the rest of the technical and support staff, administration, doctors, all healthcare employees as part of their gross wage for March,” said Predrag Serafimovski, Vice President of the Clinical Hospital Workers' Union after the meeting with the Deputy Minister of Health and the Health Minister’s Head of Office.

Serafimovski said that the Ministry of Health should also come out with a statement and confirm the agreement.

The President of the Autonomous Trade Union of Workers in Health, Pharmacy and Social Care, Ljubisha Karanfilovski, said that by pressuring the institutions they have managed to agree on the signing of the Annex to the Collective Agreement for the health sector. He stressed that the lack of signing would lead to a situation in which 11.000 health workers have equal wages to the minimum wage.

 “We expect that today’s agreement will be officialized as soon as possible, during next week, with a signature,” said Karanfilovski.

The members of the two unions held a protest Thursday in front of the Ministry of Health. ad/nn/