Arriving at the government on Sunday to resume negotiations, representatives of education unions said the keywords that could end the strike in schools were "the job complexity index."

The head of the secondary school teachers’ union, Branimir Mihalinec, said they expected and believed that the government had an offer they considered to be good enough for students to return to school on Monday. “We’ll see what it is.”

“The key words that can end the strike are – the job complexity index,” said Croatian Teachers’ Union president Sanja Sprem.

The president of the Preporod union, Zeljko Stipic, said no one had managed to divide the unions over the past month and would not today either. He added that he had believed from the start that the government would give in, but said the strike would continue if no agreement was reached today.

The negotiations resumed today after Friday’s meeting between Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the union representatives ended without an agreement.

Aside from Plenkovic, Education Minister Blazenka Divjak and Finance Minister Zdravko Maric are also participating in today’s meeting.

Divjak said ahead of the meeting that the lagging in classes demanded quick and brave solutions. She appealed to everyone involved to finally reach an agreement today.

On Friday, it was said that 90% of the striking education workers had turned down the government’s offer of a pay rise next year, along with a base wage increase of 6.12% for all public service employees.

The government offered a supplement of 3% as of December 1, 2019, an additional 1% as of June 1, 2020 and another 1% as of December 1, 2020 if job complexity indices are not redefined by December 31.

The education union’s main request is a 6.11% rise of their job complexity index.

If no agreement is reached today, the school strike will be in its 36th day on Monday.