PM Slashes Wages For More Than 230,000 Croatian Public Sector Workers

From 1 April more than 231,000 of Croatia’s public sector workers will have less money in their pockets at the end of the month, after the nation’s Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic announced pay cuts for the sector.

“We’re going to rebalance the budget. We will have to reduce gross wages by 3% for all employees in the public sector, from the President and myself, to the officers and employees of public services,” said Milanovic in an interview with RTL television, adding that the alternative was redundancies.

Milanovic said that primary and secondary school teachers will be exempted and will in fact have slightly higher wages. Milanovic says that he his government has made mistakes and that he also regrets not making the wage cuts on the first day his government took over power in December 2011.

Syndicate leaders say that cutting wages in the public sector is not the answer and that they should not be made to pay for the governments mistakes. Many say also that reducing the spending power of over 230,000 people will lead the country further into crisis.