The four federations -- the SSSH, HUS, URSH and the MHS -- said in a statement if the government continued to "clamp down " on the trade unions, they would take to the streets. They urged the government not to send that bill to parliament.

The government on Thursday formulated a bill preventing the payment of certain entitlements, including Christmas bonuses, to public-sector employees entitled to such benefits under the branch collective agreements. The government said it had decided on this move after reaching a new basic collective agreement with most of the public-sector trade unions, under which Christmas bonuses and holiday cash grants will not be paid for this year and the next, but such entitlements are also defined by some branch collective agreements. Labour Minister Mirando Mrsic said the bill was put forward on the basis of the opinion of International Labour Organisation experts who said it was possible to intervene in collective agreements if the economic situation had deteriorated.

Today, the trade union federations cited eight reasons for the withdrawal of the bill from the parliamentary procedure, one of them being the government's disrespect for the procedure as it had failed to put the bill on the agenda of the Economic and Social Council prior to moving it to the parliament.

Branding the proposed piece of legislation as a direct blow to the freedom of collective bargaining, the union federations accused the government of ignoring social dialogue.

They warned that this was the third law whereby the government was changing the labour legislation, adding that all this was causing legal insecurity and could not be regarded as an encouragement to investment in Croatia.