Unions comment on the statements made by the new minister
The Union of State Employees criticized the Minister of Labour and Pension System Nada Šikić for her recent statement that, if the wages in the public administration system were to become determined by the law, then there would no longer be any need for collective bargaining and collective agreements between the government and unions, Index.hr reports on February 21, 2016.
“The statement by the Minister of Labour and Pension System that, if the Law on Salaries were to abolish special allowances, there would no longer be any need for collective agreements since the allowances would be covered by the law itself, indicates that this government intends to abolish collective bargaining process in public administration system and to substitute collective agreements with a law”, claims the Union of State Employees.
“The Union points out that the previous government first collectively negotiated with the unions and then went against the agreements by adopting laws which denied the rights which had been previously agreed, but it seems that this government intends to go one step further and completely get rid of collective agreements. Consultations with social partners or their inclusion in working groups for drafting the new Law on Salaries, which would substitute collective agreements in the public administration system, cannot replace collective agreements as a constitutionally and legally defined category.
Collective agreements do not cover only allowances, but also the issues of base salary, wage policy, additional rights such as the Christmas bonuses, holiday allowances, severance pay, and the duration of daily, weekly and annual hours worked. Does the Minister really think that all these issues can be resolved just by the Law on Salaries?
When attacks on collective agreements, which govern the rights of hundreds of thousands of employees in accordance with the Constitution, the Labour Law, the Law on Salaries in the Public Sector and the Law on Civil Servants, come from the Labour Minister who should promote and strengthen collective bargaining process, then the situation is very serious indeed.
If the Labour Minister today considers collective agreements in the public administration system to be unnecessary, perhaps tomorrow she will propose the abolition of the right of association into trade unions for employees since, if there is no need for collective agreements, then there is no need for unions as well”, concludes the statement issued by the Union of State Employees.
