Budget, Education and Science, Financial Services, Lithuania

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 06:19

Agreements with teachers not fully implemented in 2020 budget, Lithuanian educmin admits

BC, Vilnius, 23.10.2019.Print version
The existing agreements with teachers' trade unions are not fully implemented in the next year's budget bill, Lithuanian Education Minister Algirdas Monkevicius admits, noted LETA/BNS.

He told the parliamentary Committee on Education and Science on Wednesday it happened after the government decided to allocate more money for social needs.


"The budget is growing but the focus is not on the social policy," the minister said. "That does not allow us to implement those plans on teachers' pay, as we agreed with the social partners, 100%."


One of the largest teacher trade unions in Lithuania said last week it was initiating a strike over the government's planned education funding.


Egidijus Milesinas, chairman of the Lithuanian Education and Science Trade Union, said teachers could walk out in the second half of November if the government fails to meet their budget demands.


The trade union's representatives pointed to the fact that the government pledged to allocate almost 118 million euros next year under the collective agreement signed earlier this year with representatives of the education and science area. But only 55.5 million euros are currently planned.


"This budget, as it is, cannot satisfy," Eugenijus Jovaisa, chairman of the Committee on Education and Science, said.


Earlier this week, he registered a proposal to allocate over 70 mln euros in additional funding in next year's budget to implement the agreements with teachers' trade unions.


Funding for the Education, Science and Sports Ministry stands at over 1.237 bn euros this year, and is set to be increased to almost 1.280 bn euros next year.






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