"I am satisfied with the agreement achieved after tough and exhausting negotiations, marked by tensions... Common sense prevailed," Sanader said at the start of his cabinet's session today.
The negotiations between the government and eight trade unions lasted 26 hours, from Tuesday until the early hours of Thursday. Teachers ended their strike after the agreement was initialled and classes resumed on Thursday.
The agreement regulates the cost of labour for 180,000 public service employees, and its provisions will also apply to 60,000 government employees.
All the eight unions will hold a referendum among their members within 30 days and if the agreement is accepted by a majority, the deal will be signed, and if not, they will have to begin a new round of negotiations with the government, union leaders said at a press conference after the meeting.
Under the agreement, salaries of public-sector employees will be brought into accord with the inflation rate as of January 1 next year and the six per cent pay rise, which the government scrapped because of the economic crisis, will be restored after two consecutive quarterly GDP rises of two per cent.
Sanader expressed confidence that the agreement would also prevent the drain of high-quality staff from the public sector.
The prime minister said that employees in the public sector were ready to take on the burden in times of crisis and that they should be paid salaries they deserve as soon as the country goes out of the crisis.
According to Sanader, the government and the trade unions also agreed to draw up guidelines for a national wage policy by the end of June and called on employers to join in those efforts.
A registry of public sector employees is expected to be compiled by the end of this year.
Union leaders told a news conference Thursday that the salaries agreement had both good and bad sides, but stressed that it ensured a stability of salaries in the public sector.
Given the fact that in the meantime a gap between salaries in the public sector and those in the business sector has widened considerably, 2011 will be the hardest year for the government to meet its commitments from the agreement, because it will have to ensure some HRK 2.9 billion for the wage increase, said Vilim Ribic of the union of employees in the science and higher education sector.
Ribic denied speculations that trade unions had given their consent to the government for lay-off plans.
In the public sector there is no surplus of labour, only a shortage of it, but in the government sector there are 10 percent more workers than necessary, he said, adding that it was up to the government to decide on that issue.