The President of the Croatian Union of Trade Unions (HUS), Ozren Matijašević, stated today in Osijek that the unions have so far collected 95 percent of the required signatures for calling a referendum on amendments to the Labor Law (ZOR) and once again urged citizens to support this initiative.
At a press conference in the central Osijek Ante Starčević Square, where signatures are being collected for the petition to conduct the referendum, Matijašević said that one of the next activities of the unions will be to amend what he considers to be the “overly rigid provisions of the referendum law.”
The President of the Croatian Trade Union Confederation, Vilim Ribić, assessed that the course of this initiative shows how poor the constitutional and legal provisions regarding referendums are. He added that the unions are even more appalled by the recent agreement between the government and the opposition in the Croatian Parliament, in an effort to make calling a referendum as difficult as possible.
Commenting on the recent agreement between the public service unions and the Government of the Republic of Croatia regarding rights from the collective agreement, Ribić stated that one can give up their rights and negotiate with the employer, but he believes that this should not be done at a time when all other unions are conducting such a broad initiative.
He announced that the unions will return to the “negotiating table,” but only after the signature collection action for the referendum. The County Commissioner of the Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (SSSH), Ante Krajina, reported that more than 37,800 signatures have been collected so far in the Osijek-Baranja County. (H)
