ZMOS Rejects Any Teacher Protests in Front of Local Authority Buildings

Bratislava, January 26 (TASR) - The Towns and Cities Association (ZMOS) rejects any statements by Government officials that encourage education employees to hold protests in front of buildings housing local or regional authorities in Slovakia, considering such recommendations to be inappropriate and unfair, ZMOS spokesperson Zuzana Spacekova has told TASR. "At the moment, towns and villages in Slovakia lack sufficient financial resources needed to pay one-time bonuses worth €800 to education employees under the remit of local authorities and certainly not bonuses for selected category of employees," said ZMOS President Jozef Bozik. "Furthermore, they also lack resources needed to cover the planned salary hikes of 7 percent [for teachers - ed.note] as of September 2025. Note that the law obligates local and regional authorities to maintain balanced or surplus budgets, unlike the Government, which is free to go into deficit." ZMOS voiced hope that an open and constructive dialogue with education labour unions and the Government will ensue. Bozik underlined that over the course of the past two years (2023-2024), cities, towns and villages in Slovakia have lost more than one billion euros due to change in financing under new state policy. "This deficit significantly hampers the ability of local and regional authorities to finance their responsibilities, even in the context of price hikes," he warned, adding that the consolidation of public finances only makes it worse. Because of this, ZMOS finds it of cardinal importance to have Government ministers promise only such salary hikes that are backed by local and regional authorities' financing. Earlier this week, Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD) stated that if teachers disgruntled with their salaries go on strike, he hopes the protests won't be held only in front of the Government Office or the Education Ministry, but also in front of all local authority buildings. mf