Croatian teachers turn down govt's pay offer, continue strike - union

The government's pay offer was put to the vote in 383 primary and secondary schools by members of Preporod trade union and non-members who participate in the strike and some 88% of those who voted rejected the proposal, Preporod said in a statement.

A total of 8,336 teachers participated in the vote.

In line with the outcome of the vote, the members of Preporod trade union continue the strike on Friday, the statement said.

Prime minister Andrej Plenkovic has expressed hope to see schools open on Friday after unions and their members consider the new government proposal.

The government has proposed to increase the wages of education workers by 3% as of December 1 this year, by a further 2% as of January 1, 2020, by 3% as of June 1 and by 2% as of October 1. The proposal also envisaged an additional pay hike of 1% as of December 1, 2020 in case the regulation on job complexity coefficients in the education sector has not been adopted by that deadline.

School teachers in Croatia have been on a nationwide strike for some ten days now, demanding mainly a reform of the job complexity coefficients, saying that the current system undermines their role in society. The strike action started on October 10 across Croatia and continued in different regions in the following days on a circular basis, to turn into a nationwide action again on November 19.