Despite the alarming situation in the economy, with the public debt accounting for more than 51 percent of GDP, and almost 300,000 unemployed and 20,000 companies with frozen assets employing 35,000 workers, the executive authorities have not yet found solutions leading to economic recovery, HUS leader Ozren Matijasevic said at a news conference.
Apart from adopting a strategy of economic development, the authorities should stop the sale of national assets and establish a national bank to promote family businesses, the unionists said.
The main cause of the current economic situation is ownership transformation and privatisation, and although the State Audit Office has found that only a small number of companies were privatised in accordance with relevant laws, nobody has been sanctioned and we are witnessing new cases of privatisation fraud, like the Liburnia Riviera hotel chain and the Zupanja sugar plant, Matijasevic said.
The HUS therefore proposes the adoption of a law on the certification of company ownership to prevent the management of the illegally acquired property.
The proposal is based on the Russian model which provides for the repossession by the state of company property found to have been privatised illegally, Matijasevic said.
HUS vice-president Zdenko Mucnjak said all trade union federations urged amending the Law on Privatisation.
"We have agreed on a bill of amendments which provides for an employee stock ownership plan and we expect Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec to include a union representative on the Supervisory Board of the Croatian Privatisation Fund," Mucnjak said.