ZAGREB, Nov 27 (Hina) - The leaders of five school unions, which on Wednesday organised a strike in primary and secondary schools across Croatia, accused the government at a protest rally in front of the government building of being
"insensitive and false social dialogue."
ZAGREB, Nov 27 (Hina) - The leaders of five school unions, which on
Wednesday organised a strike in primary and secondary schools
across Croatia, accused the government at a protest rally in front
of the government building of being "insensitive and false social
dialogue." #L#
"The government does not have our support and will not have it,
because its offer to increase salaries by 2.96 percent in secondary
and 2.16 percent in primary schools only shows it does not care for
this country," the president of the Independent Secondary Schools
Union, Andrija Puljevic, said in front of some five hundred
gathered teachers today.
Unionists organised a one-day strike and protest rally in front of
the government, seeking a 20-percent increase of salaries in
primary and secondary schools to reach the level of salaries of
other budgetary users.
If Education Minister Vladimir Strugar does not manage to secure
higher salaries in the school system at tomorrow's government
session, that would be his last chance to submit a resignation due
to the dissatisfaction of teachers, the unionists said.
Representatives of a coordinating body of school unions said that
according to information at hand, the strike was ongoing in some
fifty primary and 65 high schools. There are a total of 828 primary
and 381 secondary schools in Croatia.
Talks between the leaders of school unions and government
representatives about the unionists' request bore no fruit,
Puljevic said after a brief meeting in the government.
Vice-Premier Goran Granic and the head of the government's Office
for Social Partnership, Vitomir Begovic, received the unionists
for talks after some five hundred primary and high school teachers
staged a protest rally in front of the government building.
Granic and Begovic offered Puljic to bring a written request for a
twenty percent increase in salaries to afternoon talks.
(hina) lml sb