NHS against the sale of state shares in companies without a social clause

Independent Croatian Trade Unions (NHS) in today’s letter to Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor emphasize that they are unpleasantly surprised by media reports that the Croatian Government intends to sell state shares in companies without a social clause and state that social partners should discuss the announced sale beforehand.

"We believe that the issue of the announced sale of state shares in the ownership of companies should be discussed between the Government of the Republic of Croatia and social partners before the implementation begins, especially due to the announcement of the abolition of the social clause," states the letter signed by NHS President Krešimir Sever. According to reports from some media, the Government is renouncing the social clause to facilitate the sale of 59 state-owned companies, and if this proves to be true, it could leave one hundred thousand people unemployed, according to media estimates.

The NHS emphasizes that they are unpleasantly surprised by media reports that the Government, as the manager of public property in the Republic of Croatia, intends to sell state shares in the ownership of companies without a social clause and stresses that these are "state, therefore public companies in which the people, not the Government of the Republic of Croatia, have ownership shares." The Government only manages this property on behalf of the people, Croatian citizens, and this, the NHS notes, means that the property should be managed in such a way that its value is not diminished, that the property is not ruined.

"This property did not come into existence by itself, nor from itself, but was created by workers. If it has been ruined, then it has been ruined by poor management, bad management that was appointed to companies in majority state ownership by the government, regardless of which one," the NHS states and adds that governments have also influenced the management of companies in which the Republic of Croatia is a minority co-owner. This union also emphasizes that it is completely inappropriate and unacceptable to sell this public property without the obligation of new owners to retain workers, at least for some time period. "The Government, precisely out of obligation to the people as the owner and to the people as the creators of these goods, has no right to behave like the most neoliberal capitalist and to renounce workers in favor of capital," states the NHS in the letter to Prime Minister Kosor. (H)