ZAGREB, 4 Sept (Hina) – Croatia’s emergency medical staff will stage a protest in Zagreb next month to demand the reinstatement of early-retirement benefits, a law on emergency medical services and the dismissal of the director of the Croatian Institute of Emergency Medicine, Maja Grba Bujević, they announced on Thursday.

The Emergency Medicine Union and Hitna Uživo 194, an association of emergency medical staff, are calling for benefits to cover out-of-hospital teams, the helicopter emergency medical service, medical transport and dispatchers.

“This will be a protest, not a strike. We have strong public support,” association president Tomislav Petrušić said, adding that 1 October was being considered as the protest date.

Union president Danijel Šota said 99% of 500 surveyed staff supported the demand, rejecting Grba Bujević’s claim that ambulance workers did not want such benefits. Protesters will also call for the adoption of a bill drafted under former minister Vili Beroš, which has remained shelved since Irena Hrstić took over the Health Ministry.

Petrušić said ambulance workers were stripped of early-retirement benefits in 1998 by then health minister Andrija Hebrang. The union and association argue they should be treated the same as police officers and firefighters, who still enjoy such rights.

The protest was agreed at a meeting of seven unions and has backing from the Croatian Association of Hospital Doctors, other unions and professional chambers. Emergency medical staff last protested in 2022, seeking the right to retire at 55.