The Slovenian public sector has been caught up in a wave of strikes for months amid slow progress in pay reform talks. Doctors are on strike for the ninth week running, while clerks at administrative units staged their third strike on 13 March, determined to repeat it every week until their demands are met.

Facing huge backlogs and ever more responsibilities falling to them as a growing number are leaving for better paid jobs elsewhere, staff at 54 out of the country's 58 administrative units joined the latest strike, up from 41 in January and seven in November.

During strike, only urgent tasks as decreed by unit principals are performed and local offices are closed.

Urgent tasks include serving residence permits to foreigners who are drivers in international traffic and to newborn babies, as well as issuing driving licences, identity cards and travel documents in cases of urgent business trips abroad, urgent medical treatment or the death of relatives abroad.

Despite the strike, the clerks are also required to register deaths, carry out procedures related to the storage of weapons and events, and provide for verification of signatures for candidate lists ahead of the European elections.

Their demands include an increase in pay for all administrative unit employees by seven brackets and elevating their ranks to match those at government ministries. They also demand a cashier's allowance.

Problems piling for decade

Frančišek Verk, the head of the union representing them, said they were the lowest paid employees in state bodies, while facing an overload of cases, especially those related to foreigners, construction and agriculture.

They have been pointing to the situation for the past ten years, and more assertively for the last five, but to no avail, he said, adding that the last round of talks with the government on the day before the strike ended without any specific commitments.

Like in the case of other groups on strike - from judges and prosecutors to doctors and emergency dispatchers - the government has been insisting not to enter into separate pay deals that would have fiscal impact this year.

One of the reasons is a provision in the pay indexation deal with public sector trade unions saying that these would not start strike activities until 13 September unless the government agrees pay rises with any group of public employees or officials effective before that date.

Administrative units have struggled with understaffing for years, in particular due to complex and lengthy procedures for foreigners, which has led to complaints by business struggling to recruit foreign workers.

The trade union noted that a clerk with 38 years of service has a net wage of €929 and a legal expert €1,026. "People are not willing to work for such money any more," it said.

Govt says masures taken but more time needed

Public Administration Minister Franc Props said the government was aware of the issues faced by the administrative units, regretting the strike.

He listed measures taken to alleviate the situation, including an increased number of employees in staffing plans. The largest unit, that in Ljubljana, has received assistance from other administrative units in the busiest departments, including foreigners, and the ministry has also assumed part of the tasks with its employees, he said.

Mirko Stopar, who heads the government's negotiating team, said they needed some more time to coordinate possible solutions, and that there were indications that these could be found soon to the mutual benefit of all stakeholders.

He added that not all demands could be resolved as part of the strike negotiations. The issue of where individual jobs would be placed is being tackled as part of the general public sector pay talks.