Announcements by Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic that gross salaries for public and state services, with the exception of education workers, would be reduced by three percent was taken negatively by public sector unions who claim that the government has tricked them.
Representatives recalled that the public unions had in August 2012 signed a collective agreement with the government, renouncing some entitlements such as Christmas and holiday bonuses, in order to retain the salaries and jobs and now the government is backing down from its word that it would not touch salaries.
The government cannot expect to constantly expect employees to accept salary cuts if austerity measures are not being taken elsewhere. "I have for years been saying that a billion kuna can be saved by restructuring the health system", the head of the Independent Union in Health and Social Welfare of Croatia, Spomenka Avbersek.
Teachers' union representatives are sceptical about the government intending to increase their wage coeficients because at the same time the government intends to abolish bonuses for long service which will negatively impact their salaries in any case.
Teachers' salaries are now HRK 500 lower than the average pay in the country and any new cuts would put their salaries way below the average, union representative Vladimir Milosevic said.
Salary cuts for about 230,000 employees in public and state services is just the continuation of the government's policy from last year when they raised taxes and utility costs which directly impacted purchasing power and a fall in production and further job losses, said the president of the NHS union federation, Kresimir Sever.
The government has shown that it does not have a solution to get the economy going and now has shown its own lack of credibility. "I expect a furious reaction by unions including protest rallies and strikes", he said.
Enterprise Minister Gordan Maras said earlier today that it was better for public sector employees to accept a small sacrifice than be laid off, which would be the government's only other option.
He added that the government was committed to fiscal consolidation and it was necessary to achieve the smallest budget deficit possible.
We have to protect Croatia's economy for the sake of all those that wish to invest and create jobs. That is the government's priority and it is in that light that we will regulate relations with public services, Maras said.
