Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday, after negotiations with unions of public sector and state administration employees, that they had reached an agreement on a 6-percent salary raise as of 1 October this year, and another 2-percent raise in April 2023.
The mandatory Christmas bonus and the holiday allowances were also raised, from 1,500 kuna (€200) to 1,750 kuna (€232) each, and the so-called gift for employees’ children, from 600 kuna (€80) to 754 kuna (€100), Plenkovic told reporters. The 6-percent raise will cost 600 million kuna (€80 million) and the additional 2-percent raise will cost a further 500 million kuna (€66 million).
It was also agreed for formal negotiations to resume in September 2023. “I think this compromise is in the spirit of the current economic circumstances,” Plenkovic said.
State agency Hina did not say what would the continued negotiations involve.
“The fundamental goals of our policy are political stability – no matter how much some are trying to undermine it, they won’t undermine it. Secondly, ensuring social cohesion – the society can weather this crisis only if we all show solidarity, and thirdly – avoiding social fracturing. With this agreement, we concretely confirm that we are pursuing a serious and responsible policy in the interest of Croatians,” he said.
The head of the national teachers’ union, Sanja Sprem, said that public sector unions will call on its members to vote on the proposal on Thursday and Friday, and that if they approved it, an addendum to the basic collective agreement would be signed on Monday.
The president of a union of interior ministry employees, Zdravko Loncar, said a step forward had been achieved and that “we made the best that was possible out of this situation.”
“A linear salary raise alone does not solve all the problems,” he said, adding that they also wanted a new law on wages, and that “some injustices in state administration” could be tackled through adjusting coefficients used to calculate government employees, “so that some people working in state administration do not end up with salaries below the minimum wage.”
(€1 = 7.53 kuna)
