Unions representing government employees signed a protocol on Tuesday on the launching of talks on a new collective agreement with Labour, Family and Social Policy Minister, Josip Aladrovic, saying that they expected GDP growth to be followed by an increase in their wages, state agency Hina said.

This was the second meeting of government and union negotiators on the collective agreement for government employees, and the protocol signed does not differ from last year’s.

“We have agreed that we will discuss the base wage separately from other rights under the collective agreement,” the head of the Croatian Police Union, Dubravko Jagic, said, “expressing expectations” they would retain their existing rights in the new collective agreement, Hina said.

“Considering the (expected) rise in GDP, we believe that we will manage to negotiate more money. We will definitely ask for more entitlements for government employees. If GDP goes up 9.5 percent, our wages should go up as well,” he said.

Aladrovic said that under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan the government had undertaken to adopt a law on wages in state and public administration by 1 January 2024 and which is connected to the collective bargaining.