The government has no intention of changing the Labour Act or laying off workers in public services, and it will very soon adopt a regulation that will make it impossible to pay salaries without paying contributions for health and pension insurance, it was said at talks between Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and trade union leaders on Wednesday.
"Prime Minister Milanovic told us resolutely that there was no reason to change the Labour Act, and the only disputed issue is the extended application of legal regulations from the collective agreements on which talks will continue," the leader of the Independent Croatian Trade Unions, Kresimir Sever, said after talks between PM Milanovic and Labour and Pension System Minister Mirando Mrsic and leaders of five trade union federations.
Mrsic confirmed that the government did not plan any lay-offs in the public sector but wanted to make savings by abolishing overtime and one-off job contracts.
As for talks on changes to collective agreements in the public and government sectors, union representatives said they were ready for direct talks with the responsible ministries and would do what their membership told them to do.
Mrsic warned about the problem of non-payment of contributions, which he said was why in recent years a total of 17 billion kuna had not been paid into the health and pension insurance funds.
"The government will adopt very soon a regulation to make sure that it will not be possible to pay salaries without paying contributions first," Mrsic said.
The trade union leaders agreed with PM Milanovic on regular social dialogue to start on Friday, February 3, when the Economic and Social Council is to hold a session focusing on the government's guidelines for drafting this year's budget.
The union leaders' main objections to the work of the new government referred to the adoption of decisions without previous agreement with the social partners, and they gladly agreed that the Ministry of Labour and Pension System coordinate all contacts regarding economic and social issues.
The leader of the Croatian Federation of Trade Union Associations (HUS), Ozren Matijasevic, said unions of workers in the shipbuilding sector wanted a meeting with the responsible minister to discuss the further privatisation of shipyards, while real sector unions wanted a meeting focussing on problems faced by companies in the real sector.
The unions want to cooperate with the government also in dealing with illiquidity, which they said should be expedited by liquidating 20,000 companies with no employees under fast-track procedure.
