By: Ana Horvat (Nova24tv.si)
Golob’s government is working hard to collect everything from citizens and distribute it among civil servants, who are not exactly “examples” of successful and ambitious employees. It all makes sense when we put it together – ever higher taxes and salary increases for civil servants. The government has prepared more detailed starting points on salaries for negotiations with public sector unions, and the highest salary in the public sector will be 8,465 euros gross, which is more than what a director earns somewhere. All this at your expense and at the expense of the stagnation or even decline of the private sector. The law would regulate the common foundations of the salary system, i.e., the provisions that would apply to all employees in the public sector from the salary scale, the method of classifying jobs, and titles into salary classes, the range for classifying jobs into salary classes, the method of determining the basic salary until promotion and job performance bonuses.
Despite the awareness that we have all been affected by the high cost of energy, inflation, and significant price increases, somehow, we cannot sympathise with civil servants who complain that their salaries are too low, especially when we have seen many times that their salaries are – at least very decent, if not very good, especially when compared to salaries in the private sector. By mentioning that work in the private sector is also much more ruthless than work in the public sector – from a competitive point of view. However, the public sector went on strike, and Golob’s government, according to STA, was not indifferent to taxpayers’ money. The highest salary in the public sector will be 8,465 euros gross. At the same time, we remind you that among the public employees there are also employees from the new ministries, for which Golob’s government claimed, “that they will not cost the taxpayers anything”.
The proposal for a new law on the common foundations of the public sector salary system with a new salary scale should be submitted to the legislative process no later than July, so that it can enter into force on January 1st, 2024. The initial salary classes of jobs and titles from the lower third of the salary scale are to be transferred to the new salary scale with January 1st, 2025, and the other salary classes a year later. The proposed salary scale would have 67 salary grades, the spread between salary grades, currently about 4%, would be three percent. The new first salary class, now 12th, 13th, and 14th, would be set at the minimum salary in January 2023. If the minimum gross salary is around 1,203 euros, then the basic salary in the highest salary class would be around 8,465 euros gross.
Higher salary grade for rare competencies and faster promotion
Orientation positions in the collective agreement for the public sector would be abolished, and the principle of comparability would therefore be enforced within the wage pillars in the revised system. When determining the basic salary, the starting points propose, among other things, the additional possibility of a temporary salary increase for five salary classes due to the management of a project, work group or other temporarily more demanding tasks. The starting points for the renewal of the promotion system envisage a reduction in the importance of seniority in the current system. At the same time, they would enable faster promotion at the beginning of a career, and abolish promotion based on grades. According to the government’s proposal, regular work performance and increased workload would be combined.
The public sector is forever privileged, the private sector stagnates
The public sector therefore got much higher salaries than it actually deserves. And this is a fact – especially when we compare someone who works in the private sector. Not only do they have to take care of themselves, unlike civil servants, but they must also put in enormously more effort to be able to keep their job at all due to the competitiveness in the market. In addition to the necessary competences, a worker in the private sector has other skills that he uses at work, as his knowledge and ingenuity are crucial in retaining his job. Not to mention the other bonuses and allowances that civil servants have, from sick leave onwards, which do not belong to independent entrepreneurs. Every worker in the private sector works not only once, but also two or three times more, and yet Golob’s government forgot about them or arrogantly neglected them by literally privileging civil servants even more than before. And this at the expense of taxpayers’ money.
The Chamber of Commerce of Slovenia (GZS) recently emphasised that this year, when economic growth is expected to be significantly lower than last year due to the energy crisis, will be very unstable. The increase in the minimum wage and ever-increasing taxation have already severely affected the economic sector, which is crucial for maintaining the prosperity of the country, but Golob’s government does not pay attention to this. Of course, it is easiest to flaunt citizens’ money while at the same time selling them the story of a better future.