Trade Unions and Employers Oppose Adoption of Consolidation Package as Whole

Bratislava, 16 September (TASR) - Following a meeting of the Economic and Social Council on Tuesday, representatives of trade unions, employers and the Slovak Towns and Villages Association (ZMOS) stated that they disagree with the adoption of the presented consolidation measures for next year as a whole, with employers stating that several of the measures will negatively affect entrepreneurs in Slovakia, and trade unions opposing the scrapping of public holidays and no increases in civil servants' salaries. "We started with a deficit of €6 billion, the total volume of consolidation packages is more than €7 billion, I'd expect the deficit to be rapidly reduced. We still expect the deficit to be more than €4 billion even after the consolidation in 2026," said National Union of Employers (RUZ) head Miroslav Kiralvarga. Trade Union Confederation (KOZ) chair Monika Uhlerova criticised the freezing of state and public employees' salaries as of next year in the next consolidation package. Based on an agreement between the unions and the government, these employees should have seen their salaries increase by 5 percent as of January 2026, she said. KOZ also disagrees with the scrapping of time off work on some public holidays, as Slovakia will increase the number of hours worked by employees instead of trying to improve their working conditions. Uhlerova pointed out that with this move the country is going in the opposite direction to the rest of the EU, which is trying to reduce working hours. However, Association of Employers' Unions (AZZZ) chief Rastislav Machunka sees the abolition of public holidays as positive, as he believes that Slovakia can only get out of debt by making its citizens work more. "This consolidation package puts the biggest burden on the shoulders of workers and employees. After calculations made directly by the Finance Ministry, we can say that the consolidation measures will be directly borne by employees to the tune of €814 million, and this doesn't include the zero increase in salaries, if we add to this the zero increase for state and public employees, we reach €1 billion," said Uhlerova, adding that each employee in Slovakia will pay an average of €400 for the consolidation measures. ZMOS chairman Jozef Bozik added that the share that towns and villages have contributed to the current state debt of approximately €85 billion stands at €1.6 billion. In his opinion, the current consolidation measures are unfair to local authorities, and the state should focus more on collecting property taxes, which are currently low, an opinion also shared by trade unions and employers. am/df