BRATISLAVA, October 6, (WEBNOVINY) — Teachers across Slovakia are not going on a strike just yet. The council of the Trade Union Association of Employees in Education and Science in Slovakia, according to its deputy chairman Jozef Luzak, respects the education minister’s proclamation made after talks with the prime minister, where she stated that she is willing to hold talks with trade unions representing teachers. The teachers’ unions will thus continue in negotiations and if these fail, it is the duty of the chairman to convene a council meeting where a strike will be declared. As Luzak specified, the association’s council decided at its meeting in Kezmarske Zlaby on Thursday that a strike will be declared if their requirements voiced in talks with the government and the parliament are not fulfilled.
On Thursday, the trade unions representing teachers met with Education Minister Eugen Jurzyca in Kezmarske Zlaby, where the minister assured that the Coalition Council meeting on Thursday, and consequently the parliament should approve the draft to increase teachers’ salaries, which the ministry is submitting within the amendment to the law on pedagogical employees. Based on the draft, teachers’ wages should go up by two percent of next year, but at the cost of other benefits. According to the minister, teachers’ demands are quite sensible, but at the moment, it is hard to fulfill them to the full extent.
Trade unions representing teachers have been on strike alert for a few months. They presented their demands at a protest rally on September 13, when thousands of employees of schools and education facilities gathered in front of the Cabinet Office. Members and non-members of trade unions across Slovakia pooled efforts to remind the Cabinet of its pledges in the government program statement. They call for a systemic increase in funds pumped into education to attain a GDP portion allotted for the sector comparable to other EU states by the end of this electoral term. Furthermore, they want remuneration increase to secure growth of their real wages. The third requirement relates to the remuneration system, whereby pedagogues should get 1.2- to 1.6-fold the average wage in the national economy and the salaries of other employees should be comparable to similar wage categories in other sectors.
Minister Jurzyca noted on Thursday that if Slovakia wanted to catch up with the EU average GDP portion of funds allocated to education of five percent, funds for the sector in Slovakia would have to be increased by 48 percent by the end of the election term. In reality, expenses of the general government as a whole are to rise by 3.3 percent by the end of the election term.
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