Still no agreement on salary cut, talks to continue Monday

The Croatian government and unions of workers in the public sector on Friday failed again to agree on a government proposal for a six-percent salary cut, and a new meeting was scheduled for Monday, when the unions should respond to the government's final offer given today.

The leaders of 15 trade unions in the public sector must decide this weekend if they will accept the offer putting the base pay of 240,000 beneficiaries of the state budget back to the 2008 level.

In its latest proposal, the government has offered to start negotiations on a new salary rise when the real GDP starts growing year-on-year by more than two percent in two consecutive quarters.

Upon the official publication of statistics proving real GDP growth, the basic salary from January this year, which includes a six-percent increase, would apply again.

In its proposal the government has pledged that, following the proposed six-percent salary reduction, to be in force until the end of this year, it will no longer reduce the salaries of public and civil servants.

Under the government proposal, the government and trade unions are to agree, by the end of September, on ways to adjust salaries in the public sector, after a comparative salary analysis is made, including an analysis of labour costs.

"This is the government's final offer, and the deadline for the trade unions' response is Monday, because we have to complete the budget revision," Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said after four-hour talks with trade unions.

"The government is trying to revise the budget in such a way that will make it sustainable and guarantee salaries and jobs in the public and civil sectors," Kosor said, adding that this was no longer a fight for the base pay, but a fight for jobs.

She would not say if the government would cancel the existing collective agreements envisaging a six-percent salary rise if trade unions decided to turn down the government's offer, saying only that that remained to be seen on Monday.

Trade unions have so far refused the government's proposals for a salary cut, saying that it is unacceptable if workers are not told how much of the cut funds they will be given back and when it will happen.

They have also demanded determining labour costs as a way of making it possible for salaries in the public sector to catch up with salaries in the business sector.

 

(HINA)

 

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