Teachers dissatisfied with their salaries and the overall situation in education will launch a 'gradual warning strike' as of September 13, according to Initiative of Slovak Teachers (ISU) representative Vladimír Crmoman. He added that the strike shouldn't disturb the education process at schools too much. Only one lesson should be dropped on September 13. If the situation doesn't change, two lessons will be dropped on September 21 and potentially three lessons as of September 29. "We don't want the strike, but we're ready to engage it. We hope that the Government will stop ignoring us," said Crmoman.
The dissatisfied teachers want to see the salaries of teachers and non-teaching staff at primary and secondary schools increased across the board by €140 per month this year and by another €90 per month as of 2017. Apart from that, the budgets of the ministries of education and interior should be increased by hundreds of millions of euro. Meanwhile, the Education Ministry points to the pledge in the Government Manifesto of introducing significant changes in education, including gradual salary increases by 6 percent as of September 1 this year and January 1 for each year from 2018 to 2020. At the same time, talks are underway with the Finance Ministry to increase the salaries of teachers by 6 percent also as of the beginning of next year. "Teachers' salaries would thereby have increased by 40 percent by the end of the electoral term," stated the ministry, adding that this is the highest guaranteed salary increase from among all groups in the public sector.
