Workers of the radio broadcasting equipment manufacturer RIZ Transmitters dispersed after three hours of protest outside the government offices in St Mark's Square in Zagreb on Tuesday after they were told that Economy Minister Radimir Cacic would not receive them, but they vowed not to give up their demands for employee stock ownership and for a management board that would consist of their own employees.
Cacic told a press conference that the government had decided to dismiss the unsuccessful management board of RIZ Transmitters, appoint a competent board and help the company to recover.
Over 150 workers gathered in the square on Tuesday morning seeking an audience with government officials to present their demands for an Employee Stock Ownership Plan and for the appointment of Management and Supervisory Board members from within the company rather than politically suitable people.
Cacic said there was no need for him to receive the protesting workers because the government had held talks with them several times already. He said that the RIZ workers had purchased company shares during its privatisation in 1993 and then sold them to people who took over the company and "successfully destroyed" it.
Cacic said that the government had injected 88 million kuna into RIZ in 2008, "after which the same team continued to destroy the company, but this time under the cover of state ownership, because the state had become owner."
They have generated an additional loss of 40 million kuna and reduced the company's income by half. In the first quarter of this year they lost 2.9 million kuna, so the government, being a responsible owner, decided to dismiss the management board and appoint a competent one, Cacic said.
When asked about the government's plan regarding RIZ, Cacic said that the government wanted the company to recover because it had potential, but noted that more details would be known after the government examined the company's books to see whether the present situation was the result of the incompetence of the management board or of criminal activity.
Cacic rejected as a lie workers' claims that some people wanted to destroy the company in order to get hold of its attractive land.
Union leader Mladen Novosel said that this was "an example of social dialogue in Croatia," adding that the workers had come to discuss their problems with the government but were arrogantly turned down.
"About 200 workers have come here today, and in the autumn thousands will be coming here every day. If this government wants to do things this way, we'll do it this way, if it wants a Spain or a Greece here, it will have it, but in that case this government will cease to exist," Novosel said.
RIZ Transmitters management board chairman Robert Inkret issued a statement on Tuesday saying that because of failure to honour the decisions of the government regarding the appointment of a new Management Board and Supervisory Board "it is impossible legally to implement any decisions regarding the Employee Stock Ownership Plan."
