According to Babic, 8,096 out of a total of 11,000 eligible physicians and dentists went to the referendum, and 99.8 percent of them supported the separate collective agreement which was recently signed between the employer and the trade union, Babic said.
The government, however, declared the referendum invalid before it was held on Wednesday.
"A high turnout and results of the referendum confirmed that policy of the HLS is correct," Babic said.
Babic called on the Croatian Government to respect rights defined by the separate collective agreement for physicians and dentists and solve a dispute on the matter through social dialogue.
The Ivo Sanader cabinet has recently supported the procedure which the Trade Union of Employees in the Health Sector and Nurses' Trade Union launched before a court demanding the annulment of the separate collective agreement signed between the government and Babic's union, explaining that it was unlawfully adopted.
"The HLS will wait for a court decision on the separate collective agreement as this is a legal document which the government cannot cancel on its own. However, if we are forced, we shall go on strike," the HLS leader told a news conference
The Federation of Trade Unions of Croatia (URSH) whose member is the physicians' trade union, on Friday demanded an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on the matter.
The URSH has severely criticised the government's order to the state prosecutors' office to support the demand of the Trade Union of Employees in the Health Sector and Nurses' Trade Union for the annulment of the separate agreement between the government and professions of physicians and dentists, describing that as an attempt of the executive authorities to interfere in the scope of activities of the judicial branch, the URSH leader Boris Kunst said today.
Kunst said that the government should now explain why it was against the agreement only a few days after it signed it with representatives of doctors and dentists.