Slovenian parliamentarians ready to lower their salaries as an example to others

The Slovenian parliament will decide in February on a reduction of parliamentary salaries by just over two percent, aiming to set an example for others on how to behave during an economic crisis.

"If we ask others for sacrifices, we must also show that we are capable of doing so," said the president of the parliament, Pavel Gantar, on Friday after a meeting with representatives of all parliamentary groups. He added that it was agreed to reduce the salaries of all parliamentarians by one pay grade for one year. This will save the parliament, as he explained, 144,000 euros this year.

For the salaries of 90 parliamentarians, the state budget allocates just over half a million euros per month. Their salaries range from 3,925 euros to 6,223 gross, which is what the president of the parliament receives. Salaries also depend on additional obligations and duties as well as on work experience and qualifications, and former parliamentarians are entitled to parliamentary compensation for 12 months if they do not find new jobs in the meantime. The salaries of parliamentarians will be reduced by a temporary law that would be valid for one year, which is estimated to be the duration of the most difficult period of the economic crisis.

The proposal to reduce salaries was not supported only by the representatives of the Slovenian National Party (SNS) led by Zmago Jelinčič, who stated that this is populism that will not help the country emerge from the crisis. Instead, measures against tycoonization and irregularities in the privatization of state assets should be adopted, he asserted. By reducing salaries, the parliament aims to set an example for public sector employees who disagree with the decision of Pahor’s government to offer them salaries that deviate from last year’s agreement on the salary system for 140,000 public servants, and they are also announcing the possibility of a strike.

However, the Minister of Public Administration, Irma Pavlinič-Krebs, stated that she expects positive responses from all unions of public service employees next week, as they must adapt to the new economic reality and lower their expectations for salary increases this year. "This government is not lowering or freezing salaries, but is proposing measures to increase salaries in the public sector this year by 7.3 percent instead of 9.9 percent," she said after a meeting where unions rejected such a possibility on Thursday. The government claims that such a high salary increase was promised to the unions in the middle of last year when the circumstances were quite different and when, instead of a decline in production and employment, there was a significant boom, accompanied by promises from the previous government that it was possible to raise the salaries of public servants whose earnings had lagged behind the private sector in recent years. (H)