By: Moja Dolenjska
The Government Communication Office (Ukom), responsible for funding the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), does not intend to provide additional funds for its normal operation. Employees will apparently also miss out on the pay raise that the public sector will receive.
We have already reported that the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) is facing financial difficulties due to insufficient government funding. As a result, the new director, Mojca Prelesnik – who largely inherited this situation from the previous director, Igor Kadunc – has had to revise this year’s business plan and cut back operations. Among other measures, the STA is forced to reduce its collaboration with freelancers and student workers, with cost-cutting expected in other areas as well.
Before the elections, coalition parties promised to provide sufficient funding for the STA’s normal operations, but these pledges seem to have remained little more than empty words. According to a response from the Government Communication Office (Ukom), it does not intend to provide additional funds for the STA’s regular activities.
Ukom claims that the pre-election promises of stable STA funding have been fully met. “In this term, the government, in accordance with Article 3 of the STA Act, ensures appropriate funding for the STA, specifically providing the necessary funds for public service based on the STA’s annual business plan. Each year, the STA Supervisory Board, responsible for determining how much funding the STA requires for public service, approves these annual plans. Budget adjustments are also the responsibility of management and supervisors. Monthly payments to the STA are made without any delays,” they stated.
However, former director Igor Kadunc recently told the National Assembly that the government still does not fully cover the STA’s net operating costs, despite being its 100% owner. It is also evident from the agency’s need to reduce collaboration with freelancers and student workers and to implement other cost-saving measures that the government is likely not providing enough funds.
It is increasingly apparent that STA employees will not be included in the public sector pay raises, even though the STA is a public media outlet, 100% state-owned, with a similar status to RTV Slovenia. Ukom explains that the STA is not a public institution, “and therefore is not included in the public employee pay system”. “Pay agreements are exclusively between the workers and management, with no government involvement as per the law,” they wrote. While it seems the government can allocate an additional €1.4 billion annually for public employees, it is hard-pressed to provide an extra half-million for STA employees, who have a very similar status.
In part, the STA employees themselves are to blame for not being able to expect higher wages. The STA union, the Union of Journalists of Slovenia, appears to have already given up the right to demand increases similar to those public employees will receive. In a statement to our portal, they wrote that negotiations on the new wage reform “concern the public sector, i.e., public employees, whereas STA employees are not part of the public sector.” They further stated that the collective agreement binding on the STA already regulates wage adjustments in line with inflation.