Teachers' Union Pushing for April Salary Talks
The Education Personnel Union has made a proposal to the national government and local governments to restart salary negotiations next month.
The union's chairman, Sven Rondik, told Delfi that the union is sticking to its demand of a 20 percent rise in teachers' minimum salary levels.
The salary issue was central to the nation-wide teachers' strike, and a wider wave of cross-sector strikes, that took place in early March. The government at the time said it was prepared to offer a 15 percent raise effective next year, a proposal that the union rejected.
Raising the minimum salaries to meet the teachers' demands would have meant increasing this year's state budget by 0.56 percent, Delfi said. However, increasing tax revenue will probably enable the government to pass a more generous budget for 2013, said Rondik.
Along with conducting the salary negotiations, the union is planning to present a package of new proposals it collected from teachers during the strike.
Steve Roman