The Croatian parliament on Friday endorsed the proposal that the Constitutional Court establish whether prerequisites have been met for calling a referendum on government-sponsored amendments to the Labour Act given that the government has withdrawn them from parliamentary procedure.
The conclusion, previously moved by the Committee on the Constitution and Political System, was today supported by 77 members of parliament, while 55 Opposition deputies were against it and four MPs -- three Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) representatives and the ethnic Italian parliamentary deputy -- abstained from the voting.
The Constitutional Court is now expected to establish whether prerequisites, envisaged by the Constitution, have been met for calling the referendum, at the request of voters, with the referendum question being "Are your for the retention of the existing legal regulations on the extended application of legal rules from collective agreements and on the cancellation of collective agreements?"
The parliament also endorsed, with a majority vote, the Committee's conclusion saying that the required number of signatures had been collected for the referendum.
Trade unions collected more than 717,000 signatures of eligible voters for the referendum, after which the government withdrew from parliamentary procedure its amendments to the Labour Act.
The parliament will continue its session next week.
