After the Independent Union of Student Center Employees of the Republic of Croatia (SSZSC RH) announced a strike at the Student Standard Agency under which the student cafeteria operates the University of Zadar reacted by calling the strike “unsubstantiated” and “discriminatory” toward other university employees. We responded with an open letter. The University wants to maintain the power to unilaterally determine workers’ wages, but we want to negotiate them!
OPEN LETTER TO THE RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ZADAR, DR. SC. DIJANA VICAN
Dear Rector,
With this open letter, we are reacting to your media statement in which you declared that the proposal for a collective agreement for workers employed by the Student Standard Agency, proposed by the Independent Union of Student Center Employees, is discriminatory toward other university employees. With this statement, you are sending a series of negative messages to the very people for whom your institution exists the students.
In recent days, we have witnessed statements by government officials following meetings with the leaders of representative trade union headquarters in Croatia. Social dialogue is being highlighted as a goal we strive for, and improvements to social dialogue in Croatia have been announced. On the other hand, you state that you do not want to negotiate salaries, but instead wish to maintain a position of self-determination over the most important element of social dialogue and collective bargaining.
It is true that salary settings at universities are covered by government regulations and laws, and are thus excluded from collective bargaining; however, remember that during the last teachers’ strike, undignified wages were the primary focus. The unions were justifiably fighting for dignity, which includes fair pay. Unlike workers in education, science, and other public services, employees of the Student Standard Agency are positioned under the Labor Law to negotiate their salaries via collective agreement with their employer. The Labor Law grants them that right, and Article 193 commits you to negotiations in good faith. Your response an attempt to deny that right is by no means an act of advocacy for “discriminated” workers at the University of Zadar, but is exclusively an illegal denial of the rights of Agency workers.
Furthermore, I must note that you are using the concept of discrimination in a completely wrong context. You are sending a message that you do not truly understand the basic meaning of the term “discrimination,” which, coming from a Rector, is a very poor message to send to students. Therefore, I ask you openly: if you believe this is discrimination, what exactly is the basis for discrimination against other university workers (sex, age, health status, religion…)? If there is no protected basis, there is no discrimination.
I believe it is very important to emphasize that a collective agreement was signed last year for the workers of the Student Center in Šibenik. The current Minister of Administration, Ivan Malenica, participated in those negotiations on the employer’s side. That collective agreement stipulated exactly what you now claim is “discriminatory against other university employees.” Similar provisions also exist in the collective agreement at the Zagreb Student Centre, which was concluded with the mediation of the then Minister of Science. Does this mean that all of them discriminated against numerous workers, and that you are now without them even asking you to do so appointing yourself the protector of workers’ rights at your institution? I advise you to leave that role to their union, which I hope will support the justified strike by the workers of the Student Standards Agency.
Respectfully, I suggest that you change your views and avoid being yet another individual who acts in direct opposition to proclaimed values, a practice that leads our younger generation to despair.
Respectfully,
Mario Iveković President of Novi sindikat
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