A committee consisting of representatives of representative unions will decide who should be rewarded in healthcare for achieving extraordinary results during the month, and the sending of doctors for advanced training and the approval of one-time assistance from institutions in the event of an employee or family member's illness may also depend on them.
This is, among other things, foreseen in the draft Sectoral Collective Agreement (GKU) for the healthcare sector. If the draft is adopted, the Ministry of Health will pay healthcare employees an agreed amount of 50 times the average salary in Montenegro to representative unions for sports, recreational and educational activities.
"The Ministry of Health and representative unions have reduced negotiations on a sectoral collective agreement to trading personal privileges, instead of protecting the rights of all employees in the healthcare system," the president of the Medical Doctors' Union (SDM) told "Vijesti". Milena Popović Samardžić.
She assessed that most of the privileges that representative unions are negotiating with the ministry are clearly unconstitutional or discriminatory because they violate the principle of equality. In this way, she believes, a playground is created for the privileged within the same profession.
"With such a blatant disregard for the law, the participants in the negotiations on the changes betrayed the trust of the people they supposedly represent and turned the social dialogue into a personal agreement behind the backs of everyone who works in healthcare," said Popović Samardžić.
Last month, the SDM submitted comments on the draft GKU from July this year, stating that any favoritism or discrimination against certain groups of employees, as well as the unlawful granting of powers or privileges to individuals or narrow groups, would constitute a violation of the principles of equality and public accountability.
According to the draft GKU that was leaked to the public in recent days, as of November 27, the working group did not accept almost any of the SDM's objections.
According to the draft GKU, the employer is obliged to provide the employee with professional development according to the plan and program adopted by the employer, with the consent of the trade union organization. However, the SDM says that the Law on Health Care does not prescribe the powers of trade union organizations to give consent to the plan and program of professional development. The document also stipulates that the employee has the right to two working days of paid leave for participation in trade union and other activities organized by representative trade unions, as well as five days for sending them on preventive and recreational vacations.
The SDM believes that this norm is unconstitutional because members of representative unions cannot be granted more rights than other employees.
"In the event that such norms are adopted, the SDM will initiate proceedings to assess the constitutionality of the GKU, and we will inform The European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI), of which the SDM is a member, about the violation of the right to organize. Therefore, such solutions, by which the state would potentially place certain unions in a privileged position, would represent an obstacle to the closure of Chapter 19 in the EU accession process. We note that Montenegro has not yet closed Chapter 19, Social Policy and Employment, in the accession negotiations with the European Union," the SDM comments.
The draft GKU stipulates, in Article 15, that an employee who achieves work results in a volume and quality above the average, or planned, during the month has the right to an increase in salary of up to 15 percent, proportional to the achieved result, which will be within the jurisdiction of a commission formed by representatives of management and a representative trade union organization.
The SDM claims that the proposal is illegal and discriminatory because it is the obvious intention of the representative unions to favor and reward their members through the proposed Commission. They say that if it is adopted, they will initiate proceedings to assess the constitutionality of this norm.
The SM is also against the provision of the draft GKU which stipulates that the employer pays a one-time benefit to the employee, or his/her immediate family, at the proposal of the representative trade union in the event of a prolonged or serious illness, medical rehabilitation of the employee or a member of his/her immediate family in the amount of 11 calculation values of the coefficient and the purchase of medicines and treatment of the employee or members of his/her immediate family in the amount of up to 11 calculation values of the coefficient.
"Favouritism towards certain trade union organisations is once again being proposed and discrimination against employees is potentially being introduced in relation to which trade union organisation they belong to and whether they are unionised at all. The question arises as to why an employee would need a proposal from any trade union to receive one-off assistance in the event of illness or to purchase medicines for themselves or a close family member. This not only violates the provisions of the Constitution and the Convention on Human Rights, but also violates the very dignity of an employee in need," the SDM concluded.
Increase in coefficients should be planned through law
SDM also criticized the fact that the 10 percent increase in coefficients for specialist and subspecialist doctors is planned through the GKU, while the coefficients are defined by a higher legal act - the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector.
"The GKU as an act of lower legal force cannot derogate from the Law. The legal technical GKU could be changed in this way only after amending the Law - on the salaries of employees in the public sector, which the SDM opposes. The reason for the opposition is that doctors as carriers of healthcare activities and providers of healthcare to citizens represent an important human and personnel resource of the State of Montenegro, so there is a legitimate interest in having the coefficients of complexity of jobs for this group of employees determined by the Parliament of Montenegro, and not by unions whose members are non-medical staff and middle medical staff. We also note here that the SDM advocates and supports middle medical staff in the fight for an increase in salaries, considering their demands justified and in the interest of society," the SDM writes in its comments.
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