The unions -- the Croatian Telecommunications Trade Union and and the RSRH trade union -- warned that the jobs of the redundant workers would be taken over by more than 1,300 students and that more than a half of the workers to be laid off were above the age of 55.
Women who still do not meet retirement criteria account for a majority of the workers whose employment contracts will be terminated, the unions say, warning that those workers could not count on new employment in the current circumstances on the labour market.
The HT management previously started preparing a programme to provide for redundant workers and the Croatian Employment Service approved the document. However, the workers' council expressed its disagreement with the plan, insisting on the adoption of additional criteria for redundancy, as a result of which the initial list of 338 redundant workers was reduced to 290 surplus workers whose employment contract will be cancelled until 31 January.