"There is no doubt that the 0.5% on a year of service will remain, because it is laid down in the laws on state and public service employees," Mrsic told the commercial television networks RTL and Nova TV in the evening.
The Novi List daily said on Saturday that the government was planning to abolish the bonus, which would reduce the basic salary for nearly 250,000 state and public service employees.
Civil Servants' Union leader Boris Plese told RTL that the union had signed the collective agreement on the assumption that salaries and jobs would not be touched. "If the agreement is violated for any reason, there will no social peace any more," Plese said.