The unions said that they had been manipulated and that they would demand the annulment of the agreement for doctors and dentists and consider cancelling the latest collective agreement for the entire health sector.
The signing of the agreement is contrary to the conclusion of the Economic and Social Council (GSV) that special characteristics of a profession should be regulated with annexes to the collective agreement and it opens the possibility of every profession seeking a separate collective agreement from the government.
During negotiations about the collective agreement for four health unions, it was agreed that Minister Hebrang and HLS leader Ivica Babic sign an annex to the agreement guaranteeing an annual bonus of 10% on doctors' salaries for the factor of responsibility.
The signing of the collective agreement which regulates all other rights of doctors derogates the just signed collective agreement and introduces some regulations which are contrary to the Labour Act, the two unions claim.
Preliminary calculations show that most of an increase of 700 million kuna in budgetary funds for health in 2005 would be spent on 11,000 doctors, who make up one-sixth of health care workers, while some 50,000 other employees would receive only 158 million kuna.
After six years, the responsibility bonus would result in a 77-percent increase in doctors' salaries which would be 2,000 kuna higher than the salaries of judges working in magistrate's courts, instead of being at the same level, the unions say.
A legal advisor with the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (SSSH), Dusanka Marinkovic Draca, said the union had requested that the issue be discussed by the government and the GSV.
Zdenka Gizdic, leader of the Trade Union of Nurses who also chairs the Council of Croatian Public Service Workers Unions, said the union would propose discontinuing social dialogue with the government.
The leader of the Independent Union of Employees in Health Care, Spomenka Avbersek, said that by signing the agreement with the HLS, Hebrang was returning his debt to HLS leader Ivica Babic for organising a strike of doctors in 2002.
Minister Hebrang today dismissed the unions' claims, stating that the negotiations with health care unions had been conducted on the basis of the GSV's decision allowing separate negotiations with some professions. It was decided that separate negotiations be held on an annex for doctors due to the exceptional responsibility of their profession.
"... we signed agreements under which the salary of a nurse with 20 years of service would rise from the current 4,423 to 4,654 kuna, with an increase in bonuses for occupational hazards."
"The salary of a specialist (with 20 years of service) would increase from 6,953 to 7,309 kuna with an annual 10-percent increase over six years, so that their salaries could eventually at least get closer to the salaries of petty offence judges," the minister said.
Hebrang said that funds for the rise were secured through the reorganisation of the health system and increases in budgetary funds for health care.