This was agreed by social partners at Friday's session of the Economic and Social Council, which was tasked to appoint a negotiating group, the ESS secretariat told the STA on Tuesday.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GZS) publicly presented its proposal in early March, proposing raising average gross pay by 24% by 2025, provided that annual productivity gains almost doubled.

The ESS also received a proposal from the Chamber of Craft and Small Business (OZS) and one from the Employers' Association, the Association of Small Business Employers, and the Chamber of Trade.

The country's trade union associations put forward a joint proposal of a new collective agreement for the private sector, seeking to raise monthly base pay to at least the minimum wage, among other things.

The social partners did not conduct any substantive debate on the proposals on Friday, except for tasking the ministry to combine the proposals which would then be subject to debate by the negotiating group appointed by the ESS.

The partners hope to agree on the proposal by the end of the year so that a new social pact could take effect in 2020. Its validity is likely to be limited to the present government's term.

If agreed, it will be the sixth social pact since Slovenia gained independence in 1991. The previous one, signed to be valid for 2015 and 2016, had been in effect for less than a year.