ZAGREB, Feb 22 (Hina) - Parliamentary benches of deputies of six parties in the ruling coalition on Tuesday supported the Government's proposal on cuts in salaries of state officials, after they had held a session to clarify some
misunderstanding concerning this matter. The session of the Coordination of the Six Parties was convened at a proposal of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) bench that believed that salaries in question were not reduced by 40 percent what the Government had previously suggested. Following the session, on behalf of the Coordination, Mato Arlovic, a deputy of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said the misunderstanding was removed that had occurred in calculation of those salaries. The amount of salaries of state officials and judges should be linked with average wages in Croatia from 1999. Besides, state officials and judges will have no right to have
ZAGREB, Feb 22 (Hina) - Parliamentary benches of deputies of six
parties in the ruling coalition on Tuesday supported the
Government's proposal on cuts in salaries of state officials, after
they had held a session to clarify some misunderstanding concerning
this matter.
The session of the Coordination of the Six Parties was convened at a
proposal of the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) bench that
believed that salaries in question were not reduced by 40 percent
what the Government had previously suggested.
Following the session, on behalf of the Coordination, Mato Arlovic,
a deputy of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said the
misunderstanding was removed that had occurred in calculation of
those salaries.
The amount of salaries of state officials and judges should be
linked with average wages in Croatia from 1999. Besides, state
officials and judges will have no right to have an addition of 0.5
percent per years of their services, and this leads on average to
cuts of some 40 percent Arlovic said after the session.
He maintained that the Government's proposal that salaries of state
officials and judges are linked to 1999 average salaries "have
positive elements, as the Government, members of parliament and
judges, thus share the destiny of the society."
This means their incomes will rise or drop together with average
salaries in Croatia. The connection with salaries from 1999 is a
message that there will be no inflation in 2000, this
parliamentarian added.
Under this draft act, this is the first time to have the same
salaries for Sabor Speaker, Premier and Presidents of the Supreme
and Constitutional Courts (19,000 kuna or 4750 German marks), so
all three forms of powers are equally treated, Arlovic added.
He recalled that the Montreal Convention allows reduction in
salaries of judges due to a difficult social situation, although it
regards the reduction of achieved rights of judges as
discriminatory.
(hina) jn ms