Sanja Ajanović Hovnik, head of the Government negotiating team and the Minister of Public Administration, said after the signing, "The Government responded to the adverse conditions currently present in society and has also recognised them in this Agreement, in which price increases and inflation were addressed, including the weakest in the public sector. It is my great satisfaction that the majority of union representatives signed the Agreement today, which represents a step forward. The Government did not leave out the weakest and that is evident in the Agreement."

The Minister added that the negotiating parties further agreed "to immediately begin negotiations about systemic changes of the payment system after the signing of this Agreement and annexes to collective agreements and conclude a new broader social agreement on the future of the payment system in the public sector by 30 June at the latest, whereby the question of how to re-evaluate work in relation to the minimum wage will also be at the forefront."

The competent ministers and union representatives also signed annexes to collective agreements. In addition to the umbrella collective agreement for the public sector, the collective agreement for non-commercial activities and the collective agreement for activities and professions were also signed, to partially realise the content from the Agreement. For those sections of the public sector in which workplaces are classified into salary grades by means of a decree and not a collective agreement, such as public agencies, funds, institutions, and the Armed Forces, suitable amendments to the decrees are needed.

The Agreement in detail

The value of salary grades will increase by 4.5 per cent as of 1 October. The public sector employees will notice this increase for the first time at the pay-out of October salaries in November. The salaries of the majority of public sector employees will increase once more, i.e. on 1 April 2023 by one salary grade, which will denote about a 4-per cent increase.

The Agreement also defines a higher meals allowance, which will increase from the current EUR 4.94 to EUR 6.15 a day. The public employees who had already received this year’s annual leave allowance will be entitled to a higher allowance, which is determined as per the employee’s salary grade, whereby those lower on the salary scale will receive more.

 As follows:

• up to and including salary grade 24 will receive an additional EUR 300 net,
• salary grades 25 to including 30 will receive an additional EUR 250 net,
• salary grades 31 to including 35 will receive an additional EUR 200 net,
• salary grades 36 to including 40 will receive an additional EUR 150 net, and
• salary grades 41 to including 50 will receive an additional EUR 100 net.

In the Agreement, the Government undertook to realise the commitments from the agreements concluded during the terms of past governments, i.e.:

•  Agreement on the temporary suspension of strike activities (no. 101-12/2016/149 of 5 December 2016),
• Agreement on the method of realising point V of the Strike Agreement between the Government of the Republic and the Education, Science and Culture Trade Union of Slovenia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 3/20),
• points 5 and 9 of Annex 3 of amendments to the Collective Agreement for the Education Sector in the Republic of Slovenia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 45/17),
• Agreement on emergency measures in the field of salaries in the health and social protection activity and continuation of negotiations (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 181/21),
• points VIII and XII of the Agreement on the settlement of strike demands (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 80/18),point V of the Strike Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Nursing Trade Union of Slovenia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 80/18),
• point V of the Strike Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Slovenia and the Health and Social Care Trade Union of Slovenia (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 80/18),
• point V of the Agreement on the settlement of strike demands (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia [Uradni list RS], No. 3/19).

Both parties undertook to begin harmonising systemic changes of the public sector wage system after the end of these negotiations in order to draft amendments to the existing Public Sector Salary System Act or a new systemic act on salaries in the public sector no later than 30 June 2023.

They also undertook that, simultaneously with the harmonisation of systemic changes in the wage system, the negotiations on the elimination of disparities in salaries, which occurred after the completion of the Agreement on salaries and other payments of labour costs in the public sector in 2018, will take place, so that the agreement on the elimination of disparities in basic salaries will be attained no later than 30 June 2023, while also observing the bottom third of the salary scale. As written in the Agreement, further negotiations and harmonisations will commence no later than one month after signing this Agreement.

The assessed financial effect of the Agreement amounts to EUR 611 million.