Trade unions have collected 720,078 signatures needed to call a referendum against government-sponsored changes to the Labour Act, according to provisional data presented by leaders of five trade union federations at a news conference on Thursday.
"At this moment, the figure I can vouch for is 720,078, and that number can only grow bigger because lists with signatures are still coming in," union representative Tomislav Kis, in charge of collecting and processing signatures, told reporters.
The committee in charge of organising the signature-collecting drive will inform the public of the exact number of signatures collected and further activities on Wednesday, June 30, said the union federations' coordinator, Ozren Matijasevic.
Union leaders said that the number of signatures collected
was a victory of citizens and a result of cooperation of all trade unions, a clear message to the political elite that it should understand the signs of the current time.
"This is a victory of Croatian citizens, even though the real victory will come when we adjust the Labour Act to suit workers and when we force the authorities to change the way they govern the country," said Matijasevic.
Five trade union federations on June 9 launched a campaign to collect signatures needed to call a referendum against government-sponsored changes to labour legislation which they believe will destroy the system of collective bargaining. In order to make their request for the referendum valid, the unions had to collect 449,506 signatures, or signatures of 10 percent of the electorate, in the period from June 9 to 23.
Under the government-sponsored amendments, rights from a collective agreement are guaranteed for a period of six months after the expiry or termination of the collective agreement.
Under the existing legislation, after the expiry of a collective agreement, its regulations remain in force until a new collective agreement is signed, if not stipulated otherwise.
The government's amendments also envisage the possibility of terminating all collective agreements, both those signed for a definite and for an indefinite period of time.
Under the current Labour Act, a collective agreement signed for an indefinite period of time can be cancelled, while an agreement signed for a definite period of time can be cancelled only if such a possibility is envisaged in the agreement.
