Leaders of the Preporod School Union and the Independent Science and Higher Education Union on Monday announced a warning protest rally for Friday saying that the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth was ignoring their demand to start negotiations on branch collective agreements.

Speaking at a press conference, Preporod Union leader Zeljko Stipic said that a collective agreement was the only document through which the union could improve the existing rights and entitlements and agree new ones for those the Union represents. He stressed that they wanted negotiations to start as soon as possible.

“The negotiations will have a prelude because someone at the Ministry is not taking their job seriously.” Stipic said.

The secretary general of the Independent Science and Higher Education Union, Matija Kroflin, said they had decided to hold a protest because they did not how long they should be waiting for the negotiations to start because there has been no feedback from the Ministry for nearly 10 months.

He recalled the government’s obligation to ensure a collective bargaining coverage of 80 per cent.

Kroflin said that they were willing to give up the protest if they were given a starting date for negotiations, which he doubted would happen.