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He told the press that the figures provided by the government after the 23 January general strike in the public sector show the government manipulated with the data.

The document only provided absolute figures in euros on the 2012 implementation and 2013 projections for the wage bill and SVIZ decided to calculate percentages on their own.

"The average cut will amount to 7.75%, which makes us doubt the claims by Prime Minister Janez Janša and former Finance Minister Janez Šušteršič, who have been misleading the Slovenian public for moths saying that the wage bill cut would amount to 5%."

Štrukelj believes this is yet another indicator of the government's lack of credibility. He believes that both the PM and the minister were aware that they were manipulating data because they knew that the expenditure in 2012 would be higher than what they said.

SVIZ head reiterated that unlike most other EU countries Slovenia's "devastating" austerity measure focus on education.

According to SVIZ's calculations, music schools will be the worst-hit by the cuts, having to face a 17% reduction in funds. Higher education institutions will see a 14% cut, funds for primary schools will go down 11.6% and funds for secondary schools 9.5%.

Štrukelj said that government documents also list several measures to cut the wage bill in education. The list allegedly includes measures that Education Minister Žiga Turk had previously decided to forego, including an increase in class sizes. Štrukelj wondered if the unions could still trust the minister.

Until they get a clear answer from the Education Ministry, SVIZ will not support the government's proposal of cutting the notice period from 120 to 60 days that is being discussed as part of negotiations on labour market reform.

Štrukelj also said that they might challenge the labour market reform in a referendum.

The Education Ministry responded in a press release that the data included in the document sent to the trade unions was not new and was subject to negotiation that could produce a different solution.

This, the ministry said, had been made clear also in negotiations. The trade unions have requested these documents in order to learn the actual financial framework, the ministry said. It added that all proposals that were already agreed on had been removed from the process.