Politics

Public Sector Unions to Boycott Negotiations with the Government

By 11 April 2016

On the other hand, state employees unions will come.

The government has invited public sector unions and state employees unions to negotiations on Tuesday morning, but it is expected that only representatives of state employees will show up while public sector unions have announced they will not come since their conditions have not been meet, reports Večernji List on April 11, 2016.

Six trade unions of public services (primary school teachers, high school employees, science and higher education, social welfare, culture, and medical nurses) have sent a letter to the government and Deputy Prime Minister Božo Petrov in which they announced they would not come unless their conditions are met. Member of the union negotiating team Branimir Mihalinec said on Monday that conditions will probably not be fulfilled.

The unions demand that Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković attends the meeting since he is the only one who has the right to make the final decision. They want him to be correctly informed about previously reached agreements, said Mihalinec.

The government has also promised it would prepare a negotiation protocol, but the protocol has not yet been received, although it has been more than two weeks since the last meeting, warned Mihalinec, adding that trade union representatives, after having listened and read statements of some members of the government's negotiating committee, realized that they do not understand the magnitude of the problem with the salaries in the public sector.

On the other hand, Boris Pleša, president of the Union of Local and State Employees, has confirmed their participation in the negotiations. He expects that the trade union representatives will receive the negotiation protocol and that the talks will include an increase in the base salary of six percent.

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