The Croatian Physicians' Union warns that the value of an hour of work varies from month to month, hitting those with the most overtime the hardest. If no agreement is reached, court proceedings and an appeal to the European Commission will follow.
From 2014 to March 2020, the state had already paid out €120 million based on final court rulings and settlements for doctors' overtime work. Now, the Croatian Physicians' Union (HLS) is announcing a new wave of lawsuits, this time over a system where the same overtime hour carries a different price tag in different months. As a result, doctors with many overtime hours can lose between €300 and €400 per month.
At the heart of the dispute is how the value of an hour of work is determined: the base salary, increased for years of service, is divided by the monthly fund of working hours, which varies depending on the number of working days and holidays. For instance, July and August 2026 have a fund of 184 hours, making each overtime hour noticeably less valuable than in months with a shorter fund, such as February.
- Those who, through their overtime work, literally keep the healthcare system running are the most shortchanged, said Renata Čulinović Čaić, president of HLS, in a statement to Glas Istre. The union claims this violates the principle of equal pay for equal work, as stipulated in the Law on Salaries, because the value of an hour for the same doctor is not constant throughout the year.
While the monthly fund of hours is used for salary calculations, weekly working hours are regulated by European rules that cap average working time, including overtime, at 48 hours per week. However, in Croatian hospitals, doctors often work 60 or 70 hours in certain weeks due to on-call shifts, only to work fewer hours in the following weeks. Precisely because work is viewed through the monthly fund, these large weekly deviations and potential violations of rest rules remain completely invisible.
In an effort to reduce overtime hours and save money, the Ministry of Health has recommended that hospital directors reduce the number of on-call shifts and introduce more standby duty. The union, however, warns that doctors on standby are often called in multiple times, sometimes for non-urgent conditions.
An additional problem lies in the calculation itself: according to the Ministry's interpretation, compensation for an hour of standby duty amounts to about 42 percent of the value of a regular working hour on weekdays, and 49 percent on weekends and holidays. HLS, in turn, cites the practice of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which holds that standby duty outside the workplace can, under certain circumstances, be considered working time if the frequency of calls and the obligation to respond quickly significantly restrict the worker's free time.
Negotiations on a new branch collective agreement, which began in December 2025, are currently on a summer break and are expected to resume in September. HLS states that it has been seeking a solution for nearly two years and demands that the same hour of work have equal value throughout the year, full implementation of European rules on working time and rest, and alignment of standby duty calculations with the Law on Salaries.
If no agreement is reached, the union announces it will initiate court proceedings and appeal to the European Commission over the incompatibility of the Croatian system with EU law. Although they have preliminary calculations of the potential financial burden of new lawsuits on the state, they do not wish to disclose them at this time. The Ministry of Health, on the other hand, believes that the current method of paying material rights is clear and lawful, and that any different payments would be illegal.
