By: C. R.
The President of the Trade Union of State Bodies of Slovenia (SDOS), Frančišek Verk, calls on Prime Minister Robert Golob to demand accountability from the Minister for Public Administration, Franc Props, and senior officials at the ministry, who have been frequently visiting administrative units (AU) for almost two years and advising on how to solve the problem of low wages. But there has been no concrete result, he emphasised.
“Each of the previous governments has listened to all the stronger groups of public employees and reached agreements with them, but none of them have had the will to establish a decent material position for the employees of the UE. They are the ones who directly implement the laws and authorisations of the state in relation to physical and legal persons, which means that the government is breaking its right hand, or perhaps it is not even interested in the functioning of the rule of law in relation to citizens,” reflects Verk in a letter addressed to the government and the ministry.
As he added, Minister Props and his closest associates blame SDOS and SDOS organisations at AU for the strike of public employees at AU. According to him, this means that they are not aware of the “literal rebellion of employees who only called on the leadership of SDOS to professionally assist them in organising”.
Regarding the head of AU Ljubljana, Andreja Erjavec, whom Props dismissed, he pointed out that Erjavec is considered a very experienced and honest official who has been “faithfully serving the state” for four decades. He sees her dismissal as even more unusual and unjust.
“We cannot primarily blame the heads for the poor condition and strike of public employees at AU, but the intolerable condition at AU is mainly the fault of all the ministers for public administration and the AU service at the ministry,” he wrote.
As he added, the service has not done its job in the last decade. According to him, this is evidenced by the strike of AU employees, which has been going on for more than half a year, “but this fact is not a strong enough argument for any positive agreements to be reached through constructive negotiations and for the strike to end”.
Employees at 34 out of a total of 58 administrative units started a strike on May 15th, demanding a wage increase by seven pay grades, equalisation of the titles of employees at AU with the titles at ministries, the introduction of a cash handling allowance, and an increase in the staffing plan at certain AUs.