The government has opened a "barrage fire" on unions and collective agreements in the public sector but that political move will not pass because unions will not allow such political interference in the freedom of collective bargaining, leaders of unions in state-owned companies active within the Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (NHS) said on Tuesday.
NHS president Kresimir Sever accused the government of anathemizing public sector unions and causing disunity among workers and real and public sector unions so as to restrict their rights, adding that employees in state companies were under additional pressure because the government was claiming that their rights were too extensive.
Sever said it was not true that workers' rights needed to be restricted, stating as an example the Financial Agency (FINA) in which the collective agreement has been cancelled although the agency has no surplus labour and has no problems with salaries or benefits.
This is a case of the government and the employers acting in collusion against the collective agreement, Sever said, adding that the entire private sector would be next.
Union representatives from other large state-owned companies, such as the power company HEP, the gas company Plinacro, Croatian Forests, Croatian Radio and Television, and the Croatian Postal Service, also claimed that salaries and benefits as well as the number of workers in their companies were not the reason for making changes to the collective agreements.
