February 16 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's government said it has decided to offer an increase of wages by up to 1% in response to strikes by workers in the public sector demanding a pay rise.
The government is prepared to increase the wage bill by 1% in order to get the public sector trade unions to end strikes, it said on Thursday, following a weekly session.
According to local news agency STA, this means 35 million euro ($43.7 million) more per year will be spent on public sector wages, compared to an increase of some 1 billion euro demanded by the unions.
On Wednesday, some 10,000 public servants took part in a one-day strike in Ljubljana. They argued that since the economy is growing, wages should rise too, which means scrapping wage restrictions imposed in 2012 when the country was in the grips of a financial crisis.
Slovenia's prime minister, Miro Cerar, has however said that economic growth is being shared as fairly as possible and that the unions' terms are unrealistic.
Slovenia faces parliamentary elections in the middle of 2018.
($=0.800636 euro)