The negotiations failed as the unionists insisted on an eight-percent pay rise for public sector employees, while the officials of the Ivo Sanader cabinet stuck to a proposed increase of a mere three percent, the unions said.
The public servants' unions find it absolutely unacceptable and refuse to sign a collective agreement, the co-ordinator of the unions' negotiating team. Vilim Ribic said in a press release.
It seems very likely that the government and the trade unions of public sector employees would have no collective agreement for the second consecutive year.
The unionists rejected the explanation that there were no funds for a higher pay rise.
Over the four past years, salaries of the public sector employees lagged behind salaries in the business sector by 20 percent. The discrepancy is detrimental to the development of the public sector and consequently affects Croatia's development, the unionist wrote in the press release.