Workers in the catering sector of the "Simo Milošević" Institute are on strike from today, while other segments of this health institution are on strike from March 25. From that date, the reception of patients in all departments, except for children, will be stopped.
This is what the president of the Igalo Institute union told "Vijesti". Marija Obradović. She explained that the employees of this health facility received their November salary on December 25 last year, and it was also the last one they received, so they were paid three salaries late.
The catering sector of the Institute announced the decision to strike in the past few days, while the other segments submitted the decision yesterday. Obradović emphasized that the decision on the strike was made based on the meeting of the Executive Board of the Trade Union, which was held two days ago.
"The strike will take effect ten days after the decision was made, which is March 25. From that moment on, work will be carried out at the level of the minimum work process, and this will mean the end of receiving patients, except for the children's department, from March 25. Patients who are at the Institute at the moment the strike starts will receive all the therapies they will have until then," said Obradović and emphasized that a similar thing happened last year, when the payment of three salaries was delayed.
At its session in early February, the government made a decision on the formation of the Commission for resolving the status of the Institute, whose task is to monitor and analyze the situation in this institution, propose and give suggestions for activities. The Commission is headed by the Deputy Prime Minister for Labour, Education, Health and Social Policy Srđan Pavićević, and the members are the Minister of Health Vojislav Šimun, economic development Nick Djelosaj, spatial planning Janko Odović, finance Novica Vuković, tourism Vladimir Martinovic, while the secretary of the commission Nikolina Otašević from the Ministry of Health. The commission has held two meetings so far, one on February 22 and the other on March 8.
Yesterday, this Commission held a working meeting of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers with the Prime Minister Milojko Spajić in order to familiarize him with the problems at the Institute. However, as "Vijesti" has learned, the meeting was only an intermediate step, while the session of the Commission, where the conclusions for this health institution will be finalized, is expected in the coming days.
Executive Director of the Institute Zoran Kovacevic he told "Vijesti" yesterday that he could not talk about the strike and problems in detail, but he emphasized that they are currently waiting for the Government's decision based on the conclusions of the Commission, and that they will publish more information after that.
Kovačević told "Vijesti" earlier that the Institute has about 30 million euros in debt. Of that, close to 10 million euros is owed to "Jugobanca" in bankruptcy, and a large part of the debt relates to claims against the state for taxes and contributions, among them Elektroprivreda and the Municipality of Herceg Novi.
Before the beginning of 2024, the Igalo Institute also lost patients from Norway because it did not pass the tender of the Health Fund there. The main reason for this is the problems the company was in during the last year with frequent blocking of accounts, inability to invest in improving the offer, delay in salary payments... The Norwegian program accounted for a quarter of the Institute's income, which this year also has additional expenses due to the increase earnings by about 30 percent, due to changes in the collective agreement.
In February, the government determined an increase in the prices of services for insured persons of the Health Insurance Fund of Montenegro who use the services of the Institute, by ten percent compared to 2023..
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