Judicial employees who were protesting outside the government offices in Zagreb on Friday called on Justice Minister Ivan Malenica to step down if he was unable to solve problems that had been accumulating in the judiciary for years, noting that they would not give up on their demand for a pay rise.

Around 1,000 judicial employees rallied for the protest after being on strike for four weeks. The strike was launched in early June by the SDLSN union of civil servants.

SDLSN demands a €400 pay rise and regulation of collective bargaining for employees at courts and prosecutor’s offices.

SDLSN leader Iva Suskovic called on Minister Malenica and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to think about what had been said during the four weeks of strike, noting that the union would not accept anything less than a positive outcome.

National Police Union leader Bono Tomasevic believes two representative unions of state employees, the Croatian Police Union and the Independent Union of Ministry of the Interior Employees, are also to blame for the fact that the accumulated problems had not been dealt with.

“They are the only ones authorised to represent all public servants in collective bargaining but they have been failing for years to make the employers aware that public servants are underpaid and that their wages are not adjusted to living costs and inflation,” he said.

NHS union leader Kresimir Sever described as shameful information that some employees in the judiciary have wages that are below the minimum wage, noting that the government’s disregard for their problems triggered the strike.

In addition to low wages, the protesters also warned of numerous other problems such as the fact that they work in dilapidated buildings, that their work equipment is obsolete, that there is a lack of space, and that judicial employees are leaving the system, which causes excessive workload on those staying on.