Tuesday, 11 March 2025 (Hina) – ZAGREB, 11 March (Hina) – The Preporod School Union and the Independent Union of Secondary School Employees (NSZSŠH) announced on Tuesday that they will hold a one-day strike during the week of 17 to 21 March, with the exact date to be revealed two days in advance.
“We are starting with a one-day strike, and each of our future strikes will be more demanding and extensive,” Željko Stipić, leader of the Preporod School Union, said following an extraordinary joint meeting of the two unions’ branches.
He added that the unions remain open to talks before the strike begins and are not avoiding dialogue, but noted that “it takes two sides to have a dialogue.”
The strike has been called after a failed mediation process in which the unions presented five demands to the government — three related to improving financial conditions and two concerning non-financial demands.
In a statement addressed to members and all employees, the unions recalled that their first demand was a 10% increase in the base salary, the second was the revision of pay coefficients through a new regulation, and the third was a temporary allowance until the coefficient system is properly reformed.
The fourth demand was for the education and science sector to be exempt from performance evaluations defined by the Salaries Act and the Employee Performance Evaluation Regulation, while the fifth called for a postponement of vocational education reform and the reclassification of certain job posts through new regulations.
The unions noted that while the government was willing to accept the last two demands, it made this conditional on the unions signing Annex I to the Basic Collective Agreement — a document that Preporod, NSZSŠHand the Independent Science and Higher Education Union refused to sign last year.
“Since the government has rejected three out of our five demands, we are left with no choice but to announce a strike today — a measure that is always a last resort and the ultimate form of pressure to compel the other side to return to the negotiating table and reach an agreement,” the unions said in the statement.
