Trade union leaders are certain that citizens will support a solution that a referendum must be called if so requested by 200,000 registered voters and that the time for the collection of the required number of voters' signatures should be 30 days.
The government and the trade union federations agreed on Tuesday evening that a referendum on which the trade unions had been insisting for some time would be held on the same day as a referendum on Croatia's accession to the European Union.
The referendum question, however, will not be about amendments to labour legislation, but will read: "Do you agree that a referendum must be called if so requested by 200,000 registered voters and that the time for the collection of the required number of voters' signatures should be 30 days?"
The current provisions stipulate that 10 percent of the electorate, or approximately 450,000 voters, must sign a petition for a referendum within two weeks in order to call a referendum.
Unionist Vilim Ribic said today that the relaxation of conditions for calling a referendum would, for instance, make it harder for the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank to dictate the terms of Croatia's economic and social policies, as trade unions would now be able to initiate a referendum for any issue they found disputable.
Holding this referendum on new referendum conditions on the same day as a referendum on Croatia's accession to the European Union will be good for Croatia, because this solution will increase a turnout for the EU entry referendum by at least five percent, Ribic said.
Trade union leader Ozren Matijasevic said that the unions had achieved "a spectacular success" because they had managed to ensure new rules for referenda which civil-society organisations in Croatia had failed to achieve.
He welcomed the agreement between the union federations and the government to launch negotiations on a General Collective Agreement for workers both in the public and in the private sector.
The government and the trade union federations also agreed to begin negotiations on the Labour Act (ZOR) in January. As regards changes to the ZOR, they signed an agreement settling all outstanding issues. Thus, collective agreements can be cancelled only in the event of substantially changed economic circumstances, and the extended application of rules can last only one year after the expiry of the collective agreements.
The two sides will continue negotiations on the trade unions' demands by 22 December. If those talks fail, protests and strikes will be held after the New Year.