The current strike in primary and secondary schools will continue next week as well, with schools in Osijek-Baranja and Lika-Senj counties going on strike on Monday, leaders of the two striking teachers' unions said on Wednesday.

The rotating strike will thus enter its third week.

Schools in Split-Dalmatia and Virovitica-Podravina counties are on strike today, with 95% of primary school teachers and 92.67% of secondary school teachers striking.

On Thursday, October 31, primary and secondary schools in Brod-Posavina and Pozega-Slavonia counties will be on strike.

The leaders of the two striking teachers’ unions, Branimir Mihalinec and Sanja Sprem, said that they were not giving up on the strike until their demand was met for the job complexity index of teachers to be increased by 1.406 percentage points.

Speaking of the next, third week of the strike, they said that “two major events” would take place and that they were still thinking about the locations.

“We do not care about who stays in the ruling coalition, our demands stay unchanged and do not depend on the make-up of the ruling coalition. The government is the one that can solve our problem,” said Mihalinec, adding that they were still waiting for the government’s invitation.

The union leaders said that the two unions’ members were sending their pay slips to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and that they had done the same, to show the ruling coalition how much primary and secondary schools teachers actually earned.

Pension and Labour System Minister Josip Aladrovic said on Monday that the government had until Thursday to decide whether teachers would be paid for the time spent on strike.

“We expect the strike to be paid for. Not paying for it would be a political suicide. Elections are near and the ruling coalition has been under constant pressure. I think that the threat that the striking teachers would not be paid for the days spent on strike is an empty threat,” said Sprem.

The union leaders said that they did not have information about media allegations that the number of worried parents had been growing.

Discussions about compensating for the days spent on strike will make sense only when the unions’ demands are met and the strike is over, the union leaders said.

“This is only the fourth day students are on strike and tomorrow will be the 16th day of the strike for the government,” said Mihalinec.