"I believe that the most important thing is that children are in school today, it is the government's and my responsibility to normalise the education system, and that is the most important message of yesterday's compromise," Plenkovic said on the margins of a conference on persons with disabilities.
Talks with other unions in coming days
Plenkovic went on to say that in terms of financial sustainability, the agreement with teachers' unions was a compromise enabling everyone to move forward, and that talks with police and other unions would be held in the coming days.
He said that the existing wage system was unfair and illogical and required an analysis and the adoption of a new wage system "to address those shortcomings in a good way."
He added that this was why the government had insisted on increasing the base pay through collective agreements as the basic model of increasing wages.
The government has managed to achieve a sustainable wage increase of 18.3% over a period of four years, said Plenkovic.
"Changing job complexity indices in a system with 5,10,15, 100 or 200 employees such as the social welfare system, or in a system with 90,000 employees are two different things, those numbers are huge and we must take care of sustainability."
He added that Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic had been conducting talks with police unions and that the government had not forgotten them.
Trip to Helsinki absolutely not disputable
The Conflict of Interest Commission earlier in the day decided that it would not launch proceedings against Plenkovic and several other government ministers for travelling aboard a government plane to Helsinki last year to attend a European People's Party (EPP) congress there, because it had not been given the necessary documents on the trip.
Plenkovic said that "there is absolutely nothing contentious about (the trip)."
"Let me repeat, the same kind of congress was held (recently) in Zagreb... official meetings were held at the government. I don't know how to make it clear that something that is indisputable (cannot) be a subject of interest on any ground."
Text: Hina