The government and trade unions of employees in public and state services on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding on a €60-€100 pay rise for 219,000 workers in the state administration and public services plus a holiday bonus of €300.

The government and the unions agreed on a solution whereby the pay increase will be the highest for employees with the lowest coefficients. Thus, wages of employees with coefficients ranging from 0.631 do 1.00 will go up by €100, of those with coefficients from 1.111 to 1.523 by €80 and those with coefficients from 1.530 to 1.867 by €60.

The decision on higher pay goes into effect in July for the payment of wages earned in June.

Consequently, the annual budget allocation for wages in the public and state services will be about €433 million.

Addressing the memorandum signing ceremony, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that this was a permanent addition to the wages of 219,000 employees out of 245,000 civil and public service employees.

Thus, practically all but those with the highest monthly pay in the public sector are covered by this pay rise, the premier said.

In September, the government and the unions will resume negotiations on the base pay.

Plenkovic said that the effects of tax changes to be adopted in September will provide a broader picture of potentially even higher disposable income to the employees concerned.

Justice and Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica said that the memorandum concerns 169,000 employees in public services plus 49,000 employees in the state administration, that is 89% of all the workers in the public sector.

This memorandum provides for the transitional solution before the adoption of new legislation on wages that will radically change the system of salaries in the public sector and the management of human resources, said the minister.

He added that regulations on jobs and their descriptions will reduce the current 2,500 job titles to 600 and will also better regulate wage brackets.

The leader of the Doctors’ Union, Renata Culinović-Caic, today expressed dissatisfaction with the memorandum, explaining that doctors were not covered by the memorandum, while the head of the SPH police union, Dubravko Jagic, voiced satisfaction with the deal.