Dear journalists and everyone following us,
welcome to today's press conference
after the 31st regular session of the government. Today, you will hear
the minister of infrastructure Bojan Kumer,
the minister of economy Matjaž Han,
the state secretary at the Ministry of infrastructure Alenka Bratušek
and the minister of labour, family and social affairs Luka Mesec.
First, the demands of trade unions.
The government follows the agreement from January 9, 2023,
and is trying to solve the demands
of the Trade Union of Education, Science and Culture.
They decided on the basis for the negotiations
about the annexe to the collective contract for education
and about the annexe
to the collective contract for science.
The government was also briefed
on the agreement with the healthcare trade union
and authorised the minister of health to sign it.
The government said in the agreement
that the doctors aren't responsible for the situation.
They condemn any violence against doctors and other healthcare staff.
They will include doctors and dentists
through the doctors' organisations, also through the trade union,
as equal partners at reforming
and forming an accessible and quality public healthcare system.
The other demand will be solved as follows.
On January 25, the negotiators will meet for the first time.
The government wants to form a separate wage system until April 1
within the public sector wage system. The proposal
will be sent to the parliament until June 30.
If the separate payment system
won't be implemented until January 1, 2024,
the government will correct wage anomalies in negotiations
for the E1 wage group. New placements in wage groups
will come into force on January 1, 2024.
Other demands will be solved in the separate system.
This is all for now. Now, I give the floor
the minister of infrastructure Bojan Kumer.
The government passed the decree about the subsidy
for electricity and gas suppliers and the amendment to the decree
about electricity prices for small and mid-size companies.
Minister, go ahead.
Thank you. As already said, we passed three decrees today.
We passed the amendment to the decree
for micro, small and mid-size companies
where we limit the electricity prices. We added the amendment
to include companies
that needed less electricity during Covid in 2021
that was the reference year and wouldn't be entitled
to the price regulation. We passed the amendment
and we gave the opportunity
to take a non-Covid year as a reference,
this is the year from July 1, 2021,
after the end of Covid, and the next 12 months
until June 30, 2022.
We have adopted two regulations that have been announced
and that follow all measures, which have been prepared
within the group for expanses at the Prime Minister's.
For appropriate remuneration of loss of income
or for the damage the energy and gas suppliers had suffered
from electrical network or gas system.
There are two regulations. First is for remuneration of loss
and damage to the electrical energy suppliers.
The second one is for reimbursement of loss from gas system
or gas suppliers.
With these two regulations we are addressing the costs ...
Expensive measures.
We are compensating the suppliers which have to sell at a high price,
as far as electricity and gas are concerned.
We also established the agency for this task.
It is Borzen, market operator.
We established the criterion, payment method,
the measures and procedure
that will last the whole year 2023,
and the criterion, if a supplier is entitled to the compensation.
The financial assessment we made, is
that all the measures after these two regulations,
which are considering also current regulations
on the highest price cap of electricity and gas ...
The financial consequences
should be around 340 and 350 million € annually.
Thank you. -Thank you, Minister.
Are there any questions? No? Maybe someone on the internet?
Let's wait, if someone raises his or her hand.
Nobody. I would like to thank the Minister.
We wish him a successful day tomorrow as well.
Now Matjaž Han and Alenka Bratušek will join us.
The government adopted the draft proposal on the aid to the economy
within the energy crisis. Minister Matjaž Han shall talk about it.
The government has also adopted the bill about aid to aviation.
State secretary Alenka Bratušek shall talk about that.
Please, Mr. Han. -Hello, I will be very short.
First I will talk about an amendment on the aid to economy.
It is basically an adaptation,
considering that Mr. Kumer explained the regulations.
In the year 2022 we adopted the law on aid to the economy
for limiting the effects of the energy crisis.
We all know the limitations or how we aided the economy.
On 30th of December the government adopted the regulation
on defining the prices for micro, small and medium businesses.
In doing so, we have offered administrative and other help
to micro, small and medium businesses.
This price regulation will last till 30th of June
and because of this regulation we had to exempt these businesses
and they won't be able to apply.
We have thus simplified the matter
and made our economy more competitive.
That is all, but I have to say that gas is exempt from this
and technological steam as well.
If the businesses need a subvention for gas, they can apply for it.
That's all for this law.
Regarding the Air Connectivity Act...
It is a very important law that we have created
together with the Ministry of Infrastructure,
especially with Mrs. Bratušek.
We provided a source of financing for air connections in Slovenia
for a period of three years.
You know that this is of vital importance for Slovenia.
So that Slovenia will be well integrated into global lines.
We need a flight connection for that.
Slovenia is an export-oriented economy,
we have a high quality tourism,
that's why we need good airlines.
After the collapse of Adria Airways, we fell into a situation
which is not the best for Slovenia.
That's why we need this kind of help.
The goal is better connectivity of Slovenia by airplanes.
The State Secretary will tell you more.
Thank you, Minister. I would add that the connectivity of Slovenia
has deteriorated significantly in the last two or three years.
Our goal is to intervene and provide better connectivity.
The two ministries will determine together
key destinations for Slovenia.
The financial assessment, which amounts to €5.6 million per year,
is based on prediction
that for 255 days a year
we would provide 10 flights per day.
This is how we got this amount.
Between 120 and 130 passengers per plane
and €17 per passenger.
Since this is state aid, we need the consent
of the European Commission.
The law has already been forwarded to the European Commission.
We're in a hurry, that's why the urgent procedure,
for which I can apologise in advance.
We're in a hurry because we want to catch the summer season
which starts at the end of March.
The law must be passed, the tender must be published.
Before the funds are allocated,
we will have to get the consent of the European Commission.
Thank you very much. Any questions?
Online?
We are waiting.
No, no one. -Thank you. -Thank you very much, good luck.
The last minister.
Luka Mesec, Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs.
He will let us know the gross and net amount of the minimum wage,
as well as what kind of solution is envisaged
by the amendment to the Act on Recording Working Hours.
Minister, the floor is yours.
Thank you very much.
Yesterday, when the Ministry of Labour
finally got data on December - December annual inflation...
This is the data we need to make the calculation.
We adopted a decision on the new minimum wage.
This minimum wage is getting a net increase of 100 EUR,
exactly as I said it would before the new year.
The net minimum wage last year was 778 EUR
and it is now being increased to 878 EUR.
Every minimum wage recipient will get 100 EUR more.
We don't have to waste time
explaining the need for these wage increases.
Food, basic necessities,
costs have risen last year due to inflation.
The recipients of the lowest wages were the worst off,
as the price of food rises faster than that of everything else.
So we must first take care of those
who are most affected by inflation
and use most of their income to cover living expenses.
That is why we are raising the minimum wage,
so that those people could live easier.
This does raise the question of other wages.
The government has partially already responded to this issue
with the tax reform, which came into effect on January 1st 2023.
This tax reform raises the general income tax relief
from 3500 EUR to 5000 EUR annually.
This means that the lowest wages increase by about 40 EUR per month
and the average salary will increase by 11 EUR.
This year we are preparing two measures
to increase other salaries.
The first one is the debate
on the overhaul of salaries in the public sector.
Secondly, the private sector needs new collective agreements
and an updated payment model.
As Minister I already started working on this in the summer.
We have an agreement with unions and employers
to overhaul the payment model this year.
As Minister, I am working to ensure
that the basis of this payment model overhaul
is that the minimum wage truly becomes
the lowest salary in the country.
All other salaries will be built above minimum wage, not below it.
There are now 24 salary grades under the minimum wage
in the public sector alone. So collective agreements,
including those in the public sector, need to be overhauled.
For this we need a new agreement on the salary model in Slovenia.
I will strive to have this done this year,
so that unions and employers can begin negotiating salaries
across all industries in the country.
Salaries in Europe are determined by collective negotiations,
except for minimum wage, which is set by the state.
We raised the minimum wage by 100 EUR,
for all others we need a new payment model
and negotiations on collective agreements
that will determine salary grades and payment levels in general.
The second topic is the act on keeping working time records.
Working time records are a topic that I inherited.
It was stuck in the Economic and Social Council for 3 years
and we finally resolved it in the summer.
The act that we received proposed the creation
of a central electronic record of working time
where all companies, institutes and business entities
would have to record their working time.
We'd introduce mandatory logging.
This was deemed unviable, so we turned things around.
We've drafted a proposal that was accepted today.
The logging remains the same,
except in companies where there are obvious problems.
There are companies as reported by the Labour Inspectorate,
that prepares one evidence for their accounting team,
another one for the inspectorate
and the third one for the employee.
The employee is being cheated, not paid fully,
overtime isn't reimbursed, etc.
There are conflicts where you have employer's word vs employee's word
and it's hard to judge who's the misleading party.
For such instances, we're introducing the following:
If the employees feel cheated about the logging of their time,
they can demand from the employer to log the time electronically.
If the employer disagrees, they must inform the inspectorate
that will check the situation in the company.
If the inspector concludes that there are irregularities,
mandatory electronic logging will be advised.
This way, the works will be able to follow their logged time weekly.
They will have to be notified.
They will always have an insight into their working hours
and overtime.
This way, we'll achieve that they will be fairly paid.
That is the purpose of this act that was passed today.
The workers in companies and sectors
that saw irregularities most often will receive a tool
to punish the offenders.
I'd just like to stress that for all those who don't log
their hours, this act changes absolutely nothing.
Thank you very much. Any questions?
Time for questions from the webroom. Please raise your hand.
If there are any questions.
I guess not. You've been thorough, Mr. Minister.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Good luck. -Thank you.
That would be all, have a nice day.