The government gave up its plan to immediately revoke holiday cash grants, jubilee bonuses according to the years of service and child allowances for public sector employees, Labour Minister Mirando Mrsic told Croatian Radio, inviting unions to negotiate about those material rights for the next year.

Instead, the government will try to cut expenses by revoking this year's Christmas bonuses and reduce the seniority from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent.

The head of the government's negotiating team on changes to the Basic Collective Agreement for public sector employees, Deputy PM Neven Mimica, said after meeting with union representatives earlier this week that the government was proposing amendments to the Basic Collective Agreement due to significantly changed economic circumstances, and that unions should accept the concept of possible and attainable instead of the concept of acquired rights.

Explaining the government's reasons for such a position, Mimica said they were clear as soon as the parliament adopted the budget envisaging reduction of expenses based mostly on cutting expenses for the employed. The HRK21.5 billion allocated for the public sector is a fixed amount and the government will do everything to keep it that way, Mimica said.

Mimica warned that in the first five months of this year the expenses for public sector employees exceeded the planned amount by 500-600 million kuna, due to payments for overtime work, work done by external contractors and extra wage supplements.

The request for changes to the Basic Collective Agreement is not a request for the permanent annulment of Christmas bonuses, holiday cash grants and other benefits, but a request for a temporary suspension of those rights until conditions for their realisation are created, Mimica said.

Spomenka Avbersek of the Independent Union of Health and Social Welfare Worker said cutting the seniority pay was unacceptable for the unions.