Slovenian customs to strike over border changes

Slovenian custom agents on the border with Croatia will strike at midnight Sunday in a dispute over working conditions once the country joins the open-border Schengen trade area, reports said.

The open-ended action, which will see agents take longer over their work so as to slow down the passage of vehicles across the border, comes four weeks before Slovenia joins the European Union's Schengen visa regime on December 21.

Slovenia's border with Croatia will become the border of the Schengen area, and the customs agents union is demanding talks with the government on the subsequent reorganisation of their work, higher salaries and more benefits.

"We already have a shortage of staff and our agents are currently facing a work overload," union spokesman Dusan Miscevic was quoted as saying to private POP TV.

The union also wants a plan to prepare for the possible accession to the European Union of Croatia, Slovenia's only non-EU neighbouring country.

Such a move would mean Slovenia's border with Croatia would no longer require the presence of custom agents, leaving some 830 agents out of work, according to the custom agents union.

The government agreed last week to meet some of the demands but the union decided to call a strike until these demands were fulfilled or new talks launched.