ZAGREB, October 31, 2019 – Croatian Parliament Speaker and HDZ party secretary-general Gordan Jandroković said on Wednesday that the ruling coalition had agreed on five important issues, and that agreement had been reached with representatives of the HNS party on the budget as proposed by the government as well as that a government regulation on job complexity indices would be finalised by June 30.
The five issues are a budget revision for this year, a budget for 2020, a set of tax laws, the minimum wage and a law on holidays, said Jandroković.
“We have agreed on what the prime minister announced, 2+2+2 (percent increase) for next year, as well as that the issue of job complexity indices be resolved,” said Jandroković.
“Unless the regulation on job complexity indices is adopted by June 30, we will opt for a 2% increase for those sectors that are estimated to be underpaid,” Jandroković said, adding that this referred to police and the education sector.
He stressed that talks with unions were yet to be held.
“I believe that this is a good offer, that the unions will get the six percent they wanted,” Jandroković said, adding that work was underway on the regulation on job complexity indices.
As an additional safeguard, we are offering the 2% after June 30, he said.
He said that the government proposed that foreign experts be involved in the analysis of job complexity indices so that a fair regulation on indices was defined and so that indices were regulated in the best possible way.
Jandroković said that domestic experts and all those who were interested should be involved in efforts regarding the analysis of job complexity indices as well.
The regulation on job complexity indices should be finalised by June 30, 2020, according to Jandroković.
“We have to approach the job seriously because the wage system for the government and public service sectors was not defined properly in the past 30 years,” said Jandroković.
He stressed that the government had at no time contested the unions’ right to strike.
He noted that the HDZ and HNS parties today reached an agreement on the adoption of both the budget revision for this year and the budget for 2020.
Ivan Vrdoljak, leader of the Croatian People’s Party (HNS), said on Wednesday that aside from a 6% increase in the base pay in 2020 (based on a 2+2+2 model), job complexity indices in the education sector would go up by two percent as of June 30 if until that time a comprehensive solution to job complexity indices was not found and an analysis of wages was not completed.
“We did not insist on a regulation to that effect to be adopted tomorrow before a discussion on the budget, but that is our political agreement that will be made public and presented to unions because the dialogue will be restored,” Vrdoljak said after meeting with the prime minister and leader of the HDZ party, Andrej Plenković.
“Aside from the base pay rise, we now have an increase in the indices of two percent,” Vrdoljak said, adding that he would propose to members of the HNS leadership to accept the prime minister’s proposal and attend the government session on Thursday.
Vrdoljak said that he believed the proposal would also refer to police officers.
He recalled that the HNS had been in charge of the education reform for the past two and a half years and that after the latest talks the prime minister offered a solution which he believed was a basis for continuing the dialogue with trade unions, carrying on with the education reform and putting an end to the ongoing teachers’ strike.
“This is a message of trust to both teachers and parents. I still believe in the education reform and look forward to what lies ahead – what we promised to carry out two and a half years ago,” Vrdoljak said ahead of a meeting of his party leadership.
Asked if unions would be satisfied, he said that he was the leader of the HNS party and a coalition partner and not a unionist.
“As far as I understand, the unions wanted a wage rise through indices of 6.11%,” he said, adding that the final result in 2020 would be an increase in wages of 8.12%, which is how much wages would grow in absolute terms. He also said that work was underway on correcting the index and that a regulation to that effect would take into account the need to rectify injustices.
Asked if this was a victory for the HNS, he said that this was an agreement on the budget.
“This was an agreement on the budget, I would not call it that (victory). No one should feel blackmailed or underestimated,” Vrdoljak said.
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