The head of the coordination of the strike committees Janez Posedi told the STA that the 23 January strike would only be the beginning. Strike activities are expected to continue at least until the summer, while there will surely be at least one more general strike before June, he announced.

After the unions gave up on their referendum initiative against the 2013 budget which includes the cut, Posedi highlighted as the prime demand that the government engage in dialogue.

The unions demand among other things that the government acknowledge them as equal social partners and that the funding for wages in the public sector not be subjected to additional cuts in 2013 and 2014.

The ways in which the adopted cut is to be implemented needs to be defined, but this cannot happen at individual ministries because it would mean the end of a homogeneous public sector, Posedi believes.

He stressed that while unions already said after the agreement ending the general strike in May last year that they were ready to talk about any changes that could be necessary, "there has been no readiness for dialogue on the government side".

Posedi reiterated that the wage system changes drawn up by the government in December had not been coordinated with the unions and violated the collective agreement for the public sector.

He said that the Constitutional Court had already ruled that the previous government had violated collective bargaining. The unionist moreover expressed concern that the government, as an employer, is setting a bad example for employers in the private sector.