Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Saturday that demands by teachers' unions could have been discussed without teachers going on strike, and when asked if the government was considering a ban on the strike, he would not answer explicitly, saying that the matter would be discussed.

“We will talk. Not only were we in favour of a compromise, we also put forward a set of solutions including a long-term solution. You can see already that others, too, are slowly raising the issue of job complexity indices in the media,” he said, when asked if the government was considering banning the teachers’ strike.

Speaking to reporters after attending an event marking the 20th anniversary of the HDZ Women’s Association “Katarina Zrinski”, Plenkovic said that the education sector was not the only sector, that there were many other sectors and that it was important to find a solution that was sustainable in terms of budget revenues.

Even though negotiations with the striking teachers’ unions ended inconclusively on Friday evening, the prime minister said that he intended to continue the talks with the unions, but not today, “as there was no time”.

Some governments raise, some cut wages, ours is raising them

Plenkovic is confident that the teachers’ strike cannot harm the HDZ’s presidential candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s campaign because “teachers, as well as non-teaching staff, know that this government is raising their wages and not reducing them.”

“There was a government that cut wages… this one is raising them, it respects teachers and wants dialogue with the social partners,” he said, repeating that he did not see any rational reason for the teachers’ strike and that it could have been avoided.

The striking teachers’ unions on Friday refused the government’s offer of a pay rise of 3+3+1 percent for next year, along with a base wage increase of 6.12 percent for all public service employees. The offer was rejected at a referendum by 95.26 percent of primary school teachers, 88.93 percent of secondary school teachers and 69 percent of employees in scientific and higher education institutions.

A 6.11 percent increase of job complexity indices is the striking unions’ main demand.

Teachers have been on strike for 35 days.