Some encouraging salary news for Croatian public sector workers.
If the final data which will be published in early December confirm yesterday’s news that the rate of GDP growth in the third quarter was 2.8 percent, teachers, doctors, police officers, social workers, administration employees – 240,000 public, state and local employees – will receive a raise of six percent starting 1 January, reports Jutarnji List on November 28, 2015.
The reason is an agreement signed in 2009 between the then Government and unions, which provides for six percent pay raise as soon as the official data of the Central Bureau of Statistics shows the average GDP growth of two or more percent in two consecutive quarters. Since the GDP growth in the second quarter was 1.2 percent, and in the third 2.8 percent, the average of these two consecutive quarters is – exactly 2 percent.
For the wages of public, state and local government employees about 30 billion kuna is allocated every year from the budget, so the 6 percent increase would require additional 1.8 billion kuna, or about 150 million kuna per month. Although the Government claims that there is no money, unions still expect their members to receive the raise – which will in most cases amount to between 100 and 400 kuna per month. “For a number of reasons, we are happy that the rate of GDP growth is 2.8 percent. That is good news for Croatia”, Siniša Kuhar from the Union of State and Local Government Employees said.
He pointed out that his members have been expecting this for a long time, and recalled that in 2009 the unions decided not to demand the already agreed wage increases. Following marathon negotiations between the unions and the Government in 2009, they agreed to postpone the promised increase of 6 percent due to the economic crisis. The unions at the time expected that the condition for the increase would be fulfilled by the end of 2010, but they had to wait for five more years.
Under the agreement for public employees, salaries should be increased “starting with the month in which the official figures of the Central Bureau of Statistics” indicate the agreed rate of growth, which would mean that the salaries paid in December should be increased. However, since the final official data will not be published before 4 December, the raise is expected in January.
