"It is impossible to establish dialogue with the government and employers, who lack the competence to run the country," the vice-president of the Council of Croatian Workers Unions, Vilim Ribic, told reporters angrily after union leaders left the GSV session.
"There is neither the will nor the ability and desire to regulate salaries in a fair and just manner, and public servants have still not been offered any guarantee that their salaries will increase once Croatia overcomes the crisis," Ribic said, adding that this was the main reason why unions of workers in the education, science, health, culture and social welfare sectors would organise a strike in May.
Ribic called on Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to join in the negotiations, saying that he had made it possible in 2006 to sign an agreement on salaries with which public servants' unions were satisfied.
However, the PM is not likely to join in the negotiations. Deputy PM Jadranka Kosor told reporters after the session that Sanader was very well informed about the course of the talks, reiterating that negotiations could be conducted only within the framework of the agreement signed recently by unions of government servants, which returned their salaries to the 2008 level, reducing them by six percent.
The wage budget for government and public servants amounts to HRK 32 billion and a possible redistribution of those funds is the only thing that can be negotiated, said Kosor, adding that the government expected public workers' unions to put down on paper what was acceptable to them, because they had not done it yet.
The representative of the Employers' Association on the GSV, Djuro Popijac, said the GSV had so far spent 80 percent of its time on discussions on the salaries of government and public servants, while employers had a number of much more important topics they would like to be discussed.
The most important thing in the current situation is how the national economic sector will cope with the crisis and recession and what will be left of it once the global crisis is overcome, said Popijac, warning that in terms of job security, workers in the public sector were in a much better position than those employed in private companies.
Meanwhile, unions of public servants are continuing with protest rallies in Croatia's four largest cities and with preparations for a referendum, to be held between 27 and 29 April, at which it will be established if unions support a general strike, to be held some time between 11 and 15 May.