RIGA, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Latvian trade union of teachers will call off the planned strike if the government agrees to raise the teachers' wages in accordance with an earlier agreed schedule, local media on Monday quoted the trade union's leader Inga Vanaga as saying.
On Tuesday, the Baltic country's government is expected to decide on the proposal to increase the teachers' minimum monthly pay to 750 euros from 710 euros as of September 1, 2019.
Earlier, the trade union warned that the teachers will go on an indefinite strike if their pay rules are not amended as promised in June. The government argued, however, that under its agreement with the teachers' union, the wage increase could only follow substantial reforms in the education sector.
After a meeting with partners of his center-right cabinet on Monday, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told reporters that the required education reforms were "under way" and that the government coalition was committed to providing the financing necessary for the wage increase.
Coalition partners have concluded that the "reforms planned by Education Minister Ilga Suplinska are now under way".
"Of course, it is not possible to complete all reforms in three or four months, but there is clear progress on Suplinska's plans. The main goal is to improve education quality," the prime minister said.
In March, around 2,000 staged a protest rally in Riga after the government refused to include the pay rise in Latvia's 2019 budget saying that first it was necessary to reform the inefficient education system and school network.
