President Ivo Josipovic on Thursday stressed the need for a consensus among the government, the unions and the employers, while commenting on reactions from trade unions to the Constitutional Court ruling on a referendum against government-sponsored amendments to labour legislation.
When asked to comment on the announcement by trade union federations on Thursday that, after the Constitutional Court ruled that there were no grounds for calling a referendum on amendments to the Labour Act, they would organise a petition for early elections, a general strike and protests, Josipovic said he would not go into aspects of the trade unions' struggle because it was their right.
"What is important here is that everyone has a right to a peaceful protest, because that's guaranteed by the Constitution," the President told reporters during a visit to the Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre in Smiljan. "The right to protest cannot be denied," he added.
Josipovic stressed the importance of ensuring "the stability of institutions, the stability of relations and a social partnership as a very important link."
"I think that in the present situation it would be best to seek a consensus among three factors - the government, the employers and the trade unions, a consensus that would guarantee workers' rights, because there are a lot of companies in which workers' rights are being violated, there are a lot of companies where workers are working without being paid or their pay is below the poverty line," the President said.
"It is necessary to ensure reforms, because with the present setup of the economy and a disinclination towards both foreign and domestic investment it is very hard to move forward," he added.
Josipovic said he would not want to see Croatia's GDP decline further, as predicted by the International Monetary Fund. "It's up to us all to do our best to ensure that it doesn't happen."
