The president of the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia Dušan Semolič and the president of the Confederation of Public Sector unions Branimir Štruklj were the main speakers at the rally against unilateral termination of negotiations between the government and the public sector unions.

"The attitude of the government towards the public sector is objectively posing a threat to workers in the economic sector as well," Semolič claimed, and announced that the right to negotiate will be defended by striking, if necessary.

The public sector unions also demand from the government to refrain from forwarding to the National Assembly legislation regarding right of the workers failing to coordinate it with them. The government is breaking agreements and is not negotiating, Štrukelj complained. There are no doubts as to who is forcing the conflict, and the conflict is what the government will get. He warned that in the past governments had often signed contracts, but then acted against them, and such actions are destroying the rule of law, and destroying confidence, he emphasized.

As the austerity measures have been valid for seven years already, and in the meantime GDP has increased and even surpassed the pre-crisis level, and keeps growing, he believes the government has no excuse for not abolishing those measures. The unions see only two options (and it goes for both negotiating groups): how soon, and how gradually these measures will be abolished.

They are willing to negotiate on that topic, and to defend the right to negotiate " with all available means". "It is high time the damned ZUJF (Fiscal balance act) measures were abolished," Semolič added.

Drawing attention to the already made agreement
The public sector unions are drawing attention to the agreement made in the end of last year, in which both the government and the unions foresaw an agreement on gradual release of the still valid austerity measures on salaries for the period of 2017-2019, but no agreement has been made until the deadline, i.e. the end of April.

The government insisted on gradual abolition of the still valid limitations on salaries, until 2020. The unions demanded all the still valid limitations and reductions, especially regarding the holiday allowance, performance, and premiums for additional collective pension insurance were abolished as soon as possible. During the negotiations they retracted from their initial expectation that it would happen next year.

But than the government decided to withdraw from the negotiations, and to start with coordination of changes of systemic acts which should reach the government benches by the second half of this month. The unions have rejected all the version of the proposals.

The unions consider this move by the government a unilateral termination of negotiations on salaries, which the government "wants to replace with alterations of conditions, and valuation of work in public sector with political majority in the National Assembly ".

Aljoša Masten, Photo: BoBo, Translation G. K.