In 2009, an agreement promised to increase public sector wages by 6% per year as soon as the economy grew by 2% on average in two consecutive quarters (see earlier Newsletters). After years of recession, the economy did return to growth in 2015 and the condition thus met. However, the government referred to the fragile budget as a reason for why the increased failed to materialize. Negotiations between the government and public sector trade unions failed to lead to an agreement. The unions demanded the full 6% while the Labour Minister pointed to the protection of state finances as the reason why no agreement was reached. The annual wage increase of six percent would cost the budget up to 1.8 billion kuna, or 0.5 % of GDP.
English: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-croatia-government-and-public-sector-unions ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Willy De Backer wdebacker@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. Since June 2013 readers can consult our archive and search through all articles in our database at www.cbnarchive.eu. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.
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