Trade unions of elementary and secondary school teachers and the nurses' trade union will hold a day-long warning strike on Thursday in protest of the cancellation of the Basic Collective Agreement for public-sector services as well as against the announced cancellation of some supplemental income benefits and against the reducing budget sum for education and science as well as against the cuts in salaries for teachers.
Practically all schools in the country will be closed tomorrow which is why union leaders on Wednesday advised parents not to send their children to school on Thursday.
The nurses' trade union will organise the day-long warning strike against the ban on employment of new medical staff despite the fact that the health care system is now short of 12,000 nurses, the leader of this trade union, Anica Prasnjak told a news conference in Zagreb on Wednesday.
The leader of the 'Matica Hrvatskih Sindikata' trade union federation, Vilim Ribic, expressed hope that a turnout would be a very high.
He warned that the wages of teachers and lecturers were 200-500 kuna lower than the average monthly salary in the state sector.
The trade union leaders also accused Education Minister Zeljko Jovanovic of trying to intimidate strikers through an attempt to organise the recording of names of those who will join the industrial action.
Later on Wednesday, Minister Jovanovic said that his ministry respected the right to go on strike, but he believed that Thursday's industrial action was needless at this moment when negotiations were under way on a basic collective agreement.
He said that the directors of schools would make lists of those on strike, as it was their duty under the law. He said that striking teachers were not entitled to the pay for the day when they were on strike.
