In addition to higher salaries, public servants will get Christmas bonuses as well.
Government and trade unions of state employees have reached an agreement on Wednesday on increasing base salary by 6 percent, which will be implemented next year in three steps, in January, August and November. Christmas bonuses in the amount of 1,250 kuna will be paid by the end of this year, reports Novi List on December 21, 2016.
Minister of Labour and Pension System Tomislav Ćorić said after the meeting that the government still has to debate and adopt the agreement which was agreed today. If everything goes according to expectations, in the next few days the government and trade unions will officially sign an agreement.
The base salary will be increased next year in several steps, and trade union representatives have agreed with such an approach, said Ćorić, adding that he was satisfied with the deal. Regarding the 2016 Christmas bonuses, Ćorić said that they would be paid by the end of the year. Asked if the agreement would also apply to employees of public services (healthcare professionals, teachers, university professors, etc.), which are represented by a separate group of trade unions, Ćorić said that the agreement only included state services (those who work directly for ministries and other government institutions).
He announced that in January they would begin talks on the new basic collective agreement for public services, which will further define salaries of public servants.
Trade union representatives confirmed that they had already agreed to the government’s proposal and that their members approve of it. “We have accepted the government's offer”, confirmed the president of the Independent Union of Employees of Interior Ministry Zdravko Lončar.
President of the Croatian Police Union Dubravko Jagić confirmed that the base salary would be increased in three steps – on 1 January, 1 August and 1 November 2017 – adding that state employees deserved to get even more.
“There are no winners here, negotiations are always a compromise and our members cannot be absolutely satisfied with the agreement. In some way, they feel cheated since in 2009 they agreed for their salary increases to be postponed”, said a representative of the Tax Administration Trade Union Gordana Jagar. “We expect that, through negotiations which will continue in the next year, salaries in state services will grow further and be closer to salaries in the real economy, since it is obvious that the civil service is lagging in salaries”, added Jagar.
