Relaxing the Austerity Measures

30. 04. 2012

Relaxing the Austerity Measures


The government will relax the austerity measures that are most unacceptable to the public should a referendum be called on the law on the balancing the public finance, Labour, Family and Social Affairs Andrej Vizjak said after an informal meeting between the government and the unions.

 

Vizjak, who heads the government's negotiations team, said that the government would be willing to soften the measures in the social segment. However, the government will have to make up for that in other areas, he noted, pointing to the public sector.

 

This will have to be taken into account in further negotiations, the minister said, adding that there was "still hope left".

The government is getting closer to demands of certain unions, according to Vizjak, who believes that "the hour of truth, the hour when we will cut the knot is very close".

 

He moreover touched on the offer made by opposition Positive Slovenia (PS) head Zoran Janković to act as a mediator, reiterating that Janković already had his chance of forming a government and becoming a mediator.

 

 

Chief negotiator for the unions Branimir Štrukelj on the other hand said that the government would go easy with the measures for which polls show they cannot succeed, but would push harder elsewhere, including in public sector pay as well as in education and research.

 

"I doubt that 30% can be taken from public servants...and literary incapacitate education, including the university and research. I don't think that this is the wisest way of doing things," he added.

 

Drago Ščernjavic of SDO public authorities trade union meanwhile said that the government should push through measures to boost budget income so as not to overburden pay and other income of public sector workers.

 

The meeting, which was called by PM Janez Janša, was attended by several ministers and head of the doctors' union Fides Konrad Kuštrin, Pergam trade union association president Janez Posedi and Dušan Miščevič, the secretary of the Trade Union of Customs Officials.

 

Source: The Slovenia Times

Relaxing the Austerity Measures