There is no blackmail or deals under the table with this government, Labour Minister Mirando Mrsic said on Monday commenting on union leader Vilim Ribic's statement that four public-sector unions would not sign an agreement to amend the Basic Collective Agreement unless the government removed the provision on craft unions from the Union Representativeness Bill.
I think we agreed on the platform for signing the agreement and hope it will be signed on Wednesday, Mrsic said on Croatian Radio, adding that the representativeness bill had nothing to do with the negotiations to amend the Basic Collective Agreement.
"We will negotiate only on what is on the table and common to all negotiating parties. Therefore, there is no blackmail, no trading, no deals under the table," he said.
Ribic said yesterday the provision relating to craft unions in the representativeness bill was breaking up the unions and that "before signing they must know that the provision has been removed from the bill."
He announced that the unions of primary school teachers, secondary school teachers, university lecturers and scholars, and nurses would not agree to "any one-off waivers of their rights without a clearly defined obligation that such rights will be restored after the present crisis is overcome."
He said the unions could change their position only if "the government makes big compensations for the free loan it is getting from the unionists."
