The workers of the Zadar cafeteria, after failed mediation with the University of Zadar, are going on strike. They failed to reach a collective agreement that would define salaries and regulate the systematization of jobs. Instead, the University proposed that their salaries be set by the Governing Council and that, in theory, workers could be temporarily transferred from one job to another if colleagues were unavailable. Trade unionist Tomislav Kiš tells us that they do not need such a collective agreement because it sets workers’ rights back a hundred years. The Rector of the University of Zadar, Dijana Vican, points out that the demands of the union were not accepted because the requested collective agreement is discriminatory against other employees of the University, which is unacceptable to them.

Collective negotiations between the Independent Union of Student Center Employees and the University of Zadar began in 2019. This was the wish of the union members, and a proposal for a collective agreement was sent to the employer. At one point, the coronavirus pandemic occurred, and negotiations were temporarily frozen. When they reopened, the unionists were met with what they describe as a “cold shower.”

‘Why do we need such a collective bargaining agreement?’

We spoke with Tomislav Kiš, a representative of Novi sindikat, who in this particular case represents the independent trade union and its members. He tells us that the workers will go on strike because the mediation with the Agency for Student Standards of the University of Zadar ended unsuccessfully yesterday.

“First, we gave up on increasing all material rights for a certain period meaning Christmas bonuses and everything else included. We reached out to the employer and asked them to see how much money they could allocate, even to the point where we indicated we were ready to agree to a reduction in workers’ rights for a defined period,” Kiš tells us.

However, he says that representatives of the Agency arrived at the continuation of negotiations with scandalous proposals.

“They wanted to delete the provision on determining the value of points from the collective agreement. Instead, according to their idea, the value of the point would be determined by the Governing Council. Additionally, they did not want to agree to the systematization of jobs in a way that determined through simple mathematics the number of points multiplied by the value of the points. Thirdly, they wanted to introduce a provision that would theoretically allow for the temporary transfer of workers to other positions if a colleague was unavailable. In other words, according to the Agency’s idea, salaries would not be defined by a collective agreement but would be determined by the Governing Council,” explains Kiš.

With this, Kiš says, they want to take workers back more than a hundred years. As early as 1920, unions agreed to include wages in collective bargaining agreements. With the agreement proposed by the University, he claims, they would not have defined salaries or the systematization of jobs.

“Why do we need such a collective agreement if it does not define wages?” asks Kiš.

Rector Vican: ‘They demanded something that is unacceptable to us’

The Student Standards Agency, whose representatives negotiated with the unionists, was founded by the University of Zadar. We spoke to the Rector, Dijana Vican, and she explained why the Agency was established and why they decided to reject the union’s demands.

“The Agency deals with student nutrition. It is my duty, as the Rector of the University, to take care of the workers in the best possible way. The Agency was established so that workers could have salaries meaning incomes higher than would be the case if they were a direct component of the University, because it is an integrated University. The unionists demanded something that, if accepted, would be discriminatory against other employees of our departments,” says the Rector.

Rector Vican points out that such a consequence is unacceptable for the University and therefore the demands were not accepted, which, she emphasizes, does not cause any harm to the employees of the Agency.

“They decided to strike; that is their right. My right and obligation is to ensure student nutrition and the smooth operation of the Agency, which I have done,” concluded Vican.

The article was originally published on the portal srednja.hr on October 9, 2020, under the title “The workers of the cafeteria go on strike: ‘We want to make a deal, not for you to set our salary.’

Photo: Silvija Vuković / Srednja.hr