While positive shifts on the labour market can be noticed, the trade unionist believes that this does not mean that additional changes are not needed.

The upcoming bank holiday, celebrated on 1 and 2 May, should be respected also because "we live in a time when democracy is being increasingly abused to create and maintain profit at the expense of the working class," Dušan Semolič of the ZSSS has told the STA.

"Labour Day strengthens the consciousness that no worker right was or will be a gift or a given. One should fight for worker rights."

The ZSSS believes that the government is trying to satisfy the expectations of banks all too much, while radical austerity went to far affecting ordinary people's standard of living. "Many things should be done so that we would not have only a budget that is tailored to the expectations of the gentlemen from Brussels."

Everything that is created should be distributed more equally for the benefit of workers, pensioners and young, so that conditions are created that would not suit only banks and capital, but people above all, Semolič said.

The expectations of the trade unions as May Day is being celebrated are that those who are in power in Slovenia consider in their decisions the interest of workers, not only of banks.

The Pergam trade union confederation meanwhile pointed on the occasion of the holiday to inter-generational solidarity, also stressing the need to eliminate differentiation between individual groups on the labour market.

According to the Labour Ministry, the situation on the labour market improved this year - there were more people having a job in February than in February 2015, and the number of self-employed people also increased.

An annual comparison of the number of registered unemployed people at the Employment Service in March also shows an improvement. The figure stood at 110,226 or 6.7% less than in the same month last year.

Damjana Košir of the Employment Directorate at the Labour Ministry believes that the positive trend mostly owes to the favourable economic trends, but she also pointed to the positive impact of tax-certified cash registers when it came to fighting grey economy.

Košir added that the active employment policies implemented by the ministry also contributed to employment of vulnerable groups on the labour market.

On the other hand, Košir noted that the share of unemployed persons with tertiary education was increasing, as well as the share of people with primary education, long-term unemployed and people older than 50.

Andrej Zorko of the ZSSS added that "in general, we can say that the indicators, at least statistical ones, are positive. The number of unemployed is decreasing, a bigger number of first-time job-seekers are concluding open-ended contracts, there is less abuse of student work."

According to him, this is also owing to trade unions warning about the shortcomings and unlawfulness and preparing proposals for regulating individual areas. "Positive shifts can be seen in the areas where the legislator has followed our proposals."

But Zorko stressed that there were still anomalies on the labour market that needed to be eliminated, including precarious forms of work, in particular among the young.

A reduction in the volume of precarious work would "reduce unfair competition, prevent social dumping and at the same time reduce pressure on worker rights", he believes.