Leader of the Social Democrats (SDP), Davor Bernardic, unveiled on Thursday his party's proposal which would see all wages go up, by increasing the non-taxable portion of salaries from 3,800 to 5,000 kuna (from €512 to €673).

Bernardic said in a news conference that SDP’s strategic priority was to ensure wage and pension growth, because during the term of the present government over 100,000 Croatians had emigrated, mostly due to low wages, while half a million people lived at risk of poverty.

He added that the state of affairs on the local labour market was alarming, because people worked for low wages and labour was increasingly in short supply.

Bernardic added that SDP’s proposal to increase minimum net wage to 4,000 kuna (€539) had been in Parliament for a while, and that the party would continue to insist on the plan, as a solution for wage growth.

“Unlike the (ruling) Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Prime Minister (Andrej) Plenkovic, who protect big business and invite investors to come to Croatia because of cheap labour, our goal is to ensure wage growth and a decent life for all workers in Croatia,” Bernardic said.

He went on to criticise the upcoming tax reform proposed by the ruling coalition.

“it will not make the lowest wages any higher, and there will be no increase in income for the neediest, while Plenkovic’s own salary will go up by 4,000 kuna per month. This tax reform package is not in favour of ordinary citizens, but only in favour of high earners, and state officials,” Bernardic told reporters.

Commenting on the latest developments in the so-called Text Message scandal, Bernardic said that it showed “an obvious connection between the HDZ and the intelligence and para-intelligence structures”, and that SDP wanted this affair fully investigated.

(€1 = 7.42 kuna)

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