Over 1,000 INA workers arrived in Zagreb from throughout Croatia on Thursday to stage a protest rally in front of the company's headquarters against downsizing in this leading Croatian oil and gas group and against a further delay in efforts to conclude a new collective agreement.
Representatives of three trade unions gathering INA employees warned at the rally that no settlement could be reached with the management regarding a collective agreement provision that would protect INA workers from being transferred to companies divested from INA.
Such a move would eventually lead to massive lay-offs, unionists said.
They also warned about the management's plans to halve the amount of crude oil to be processed at the Sisak refinery.
According to figures available on the company's website, INA is owned by the Hungarian oil company MOL (49.08%), the Croatian government (44.83%), and private and institutional investors (6.08%).
Later on Thursday, the INA management stated that it had been surprised by the protest as it was organised while the negotiations on the collective agreement were still under way.
The management branded today's industrial action as an act "to politicise the negotiations and undermine the efforts to find the settlement".
