Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday morning he expected an agreement would be reached with striking teachers' unions in the afternoon.

“Talks will be held this afternoon after the protest rally. I appeal to all unions, union leaders, to take into account that it would be good for children to return to their classes as soon as possible. If the question was whether we heard the message, yes we did,” the prime minister told the press after opening the Shared Services Centre of the state-owned information technology company APIS IT.

He reiterated that during the term of his government the wages of primary and secondary school teachers would increase by 18.3% through the basic collective agreement alone, and that his offer to the unions was an additional 2% as of October 1. He said the government had a solution to the present situation, after its previous offers were rejected by the unions.

“I think we have a solution. Its aim is to ensure that children go to school, that teachers are satisfied and that this whole story ends in such a way that we can all say that we have improved the system,” Plenkovic said, adding that he expected a solution to be found today. He would not discuss details of the government’s new offer.

About 5,000 members of teachers’ unions gathered in Zagreb on Monday morning for a protest rally scheduled for noon in the city’s main square Trg Bana Jelacica where they will demand a 6.11% increase of job complexity indices.