Different rules for the same trip: Five doctors sue the Capital City Health Department, they claim they are complying with the Regulation with the opinion of the Ministry of Finance.

Five doctors from the Capital City Health Center have sued the institution for failing to pay travel expenses for visiting immediate family under the Regulation from January this year. While they claim that they are discriminated against compared to colleagues from other health institutions, the Health Center's management says that they regularly and properly pay reimbursement for transportation costs to residents, but with the opinion of the Ministry of Finance.

In a letter to "Vijesti", the doctors remind that in December last year, Article 26 of the Regulation on Reimbursement of Expenses for Public Sector Employees was amended, which stipulates the right of employees to reimbursement of transportation costs for four trips per month to visit their immediate family.

The aforementioned regulation has been amended so that it now provides that “transport costs referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article shall be paid on the basis of confirmation of the price of a ticket for a specific route issued by an authorized provider of public transport services for urban and international road transport (buses)”. This, they claim, has removed the previous doubt regarding the manner of exercising this right.

"In accordance with the above, since January 2026, healthcare institutions throughout Montenegro have been regularly paying the above costs to their residents who are doing part of their internship in Belgrade," the residents emphasized.

They claim that the Capital City Health Center deviates from the uniform application of the regulation by not paying the aforementioned expenses to its residents who do part of their internship in Belgrade in the manner prescribed by the Regulation, but, they believe, is making its own interpretation of its provisions, referring to the opinion of the Ministry of Finance.

"Despite repeated requests to resolve the aforementioned problem, to date there has been no adequate response or elimination of unequal treatment. Considering the unequal and discriminatory position we have been placed in over the past few months compared to other residents in Montenegro, we are forced to address the public, but also to seek legal protection and assistance," the doctors state. Jelena Vujović, Iva Lakić, Jelena Selić, Daniela Nikolić and Mitra Mugoša who has since completed her specialization.

They emphasized that the lack of appropriate management response to issues that directly affect the position, motivation and satisfaction of employees is concerning, as evidenced not only by their situation.

"...We have already witnessed several cases in recent months (selected pediatricians and forced on-call duty, shameful scoring in the specialization competition, inability to work privately due to maternity leave), which inevitably affects the perception of the institution as a potential employer for future young doctors, which we believe is especially important in times of chronic staff shortages and a competitive private labor market," they concluded in the letter.

According to the information of "Vijesti", most health institutions pay compensation in accordance with the Regulation - based on a confirmation of the cost of travel, and the Clinical Center of Montenegro (KCCG), as an institution with the most residents, even retroactively, for the previous year. Only a few, including the Podgorica Health Center, require tickets as proof of travel. The Capital City Health Center allegedly paid some residents the cost of bus transportation, after they submitted airline tickets as proof that they were visiting their immediate family.

"The Capital City Health Center regularly and properly pays reimbursement of transportation costs for visits to immediate family to residents, and in all respects applies the provisions of the Regulation on Reimbursement of Expenses for Employees in the Public Sector, although the provisions of the aforementioned regulation are indisputable, our health institution (due to certain circumstances) nevertheless contacted the competent authority, the Ministry of Finance, and we received an official written Opinion from it regarding this issue. To obtain it, you can contact the Ministry of Finance," the institution's response reads.

The Ministry of Finance, despite the announcement, did not respond to questions regarding this problem.

The Regulation on the Compensation of Expenses of Public Sector Employees, which came into force in January this year, stipulates that employees are paid transportation costs to visit their immediate family from whom they live separately, in the amount of the costs of public urban and international road transport (bus) for four trips per month,

"Transportation costs referred to in paragraph 3 of this article shall be paid based on a confirmation of the ticket price for a specific route issued by an authorized provider of public urban and international road transport services (buses)," the Regulation states.

According to "Vijesti", the Ministry of Finance, in an act from April this year, informed the Capital that "in order to exercise the right to reimbursement of transportation costs, the employee is obliged to submit an appropriate request with accompanying documentation (ticket price confirmation or other appropriate evidence), whereby it is necessary that there is a connection between the submitted request and the specific trip. The interpretation of this department, headed by Novica Vuković, is that the right to compensation for actually incurred expenses cannot have the character of a fixed monthly income.

Due to non-payment of costs in accordance with the Regulation, five doctors also contacted the Agency for Peaceful Dispute Resolution, but the procedure was suspended - the Health Center believed that there was no room for peaceful resolution of the specific labor dispute, claiming that the proposal was unfounded.