NEWS

Slovenian Prime Minister after Meeting Representatives of Public Sector Trade Unions: "Although more difficult, dialogue is the right and proper way"

The Slovenian Prime Minister, Borut Pahor, together with the Minister of Public Administration, Ms Irma Pavlinič Krebs, today had a working meeting with authorised representatives of the Slovenian public sector Trade Unions. In his statement to the press following the meeting, Mr Pahor emphasised that already upon assuming the term of office as Prime Minister he had decided, in agreement with Minister Pavlinič Krebs, to pursue dialogue with Trade Unions of the public sector, although he could have already then decided to freeze the wages. "Together with the responsible minister, we have indeed chosen a more difficult, but nevertheless the right and proper way to resolve the issue of wages in the public sector. And this dialogue has already yielded results," said Prime Minister Pahor.

   

During the transition from high economic growth to recession, the real economy saw a substantial GDP decrease; the wages fell significantly and there were massive dismissals, but nothing dramatic happened in the public sector. The wages in this sector, for example, continue to grow at a substantially higher rate than in the real economy, added Mr Pahor. In his view, the latter constitutes a basic social injustice that needs to be addressed: "Given the current circumstances, we have come to a conclusion that what we need is sustainability of public finances, or more specifically, a wage freeze in the public sector. The Government will most probably adopt this decision at the beginning of next month; however, it will need to be approved by the National Assembly. I would like to emphasise that we intend to overcome the current crisis in a manner that will not overburden anyone, which also goes for the public sector employees. However, the wage growth rate in the public sector, indeed uncontrolled, highly exceeded the wage growth rate in the real economy, while the fact remains that employment in this sector has never been threatened. And this anomaly of wage disparities must be removed. Minister Pavlinič Krebs and I consider our decision to be the right move."