(ANSA) - LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian government has confirmed Wednwsday, through its official Twitter account, the agreement reached last weekend about salaries between the Health minister and FIDES, the strongest Slovenian doctors' union. During the press conference that followed the Council of ministers, the ministry of Health, Milojka Kolar Celarc, expressed her satisfaction for the agreement reached after longstanding talks with the representative of the doctors and dentists.

According to the new scheme, medical professionals could earn up to a fourth more of their base salary if they work more. The agreement came on time to avoid a strike announced for Monday, and now the government has six months to submit to the Parliament the amended limitations to the Wage Act and ensure that state budget is allocated to support the new measures, which the parties involved defined as a small health-system reform.

Since the Health minister survived a no-confidence vote in mid-October, doctors have been tightening their strike measures to underline the importance of issues such as workload standards and norms, as well as changes to the pay system used for all public employees. In the previous days both the Prime minister, Miro Cerar, and the minister for Public Administration, Boris Koprivnikar, hailed the agreement as a turning point and a potential benchmark for the other public-sector syndicates.

(ANSA).