Health professionals of the Sarajevo Canton, more than 3,000 of them, went on a general strike Monday morning, cancelling all their services except urgencies and previously scheduled surgeries.

The strike will continue until their basic demands – increasing of hourly wage and signing a new collective agreement, are met.

“As of Wednesday and Thursday we will be coming out in front of the healthcare institutions to show we are extremely serious, and they have enough time to specify what's that they want and what we want,” said Edo Selimic, the Head of the Union of the Healthcare Workers in Sarajevo Canton.

But, the Government said in response to the workers that they had no money to meet the demands, offering only a collective agreement which would be the same as the one that was in force by February this year and opening new talks in March 2020.

“The employer is the one to set a meeting, so we can find the average value that all of us will be satisfied with,” said the union leader.

Selimovic claims that the Government does have the funds to meet the workers’ demands.

“It is necessary to sit and talk,” he added.