GOVT TO SEND CHANGES TO LABOUR LAW INTO PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE

ZAGREB, Jan 22 (Hina) - The Croatian government should, at Thursday's session, adopt a bill of amendments to the Labour Act (ZOR) and send it into parliamentary procedure but with a clear indication of which issues were not harmonised with trade unions, a Deputy Prime Minister and chairman of the Economic-Social Council (GSV), Goran Granic, said following a meeting of the GSV that was attended by Premier Ivica Racan on Wednesday evening. #L# Our proposals have left sufficient room to reach a solution in the weeks to come that will be in the interest of all social partners concerned, Granic told reporters. All contentious issues contained in the ZOR should be harmonised with union federations before the second reading of the bill in the Sabor. Premier Ivica Racan will be actively involved in negotiations with unions. Granic said that in addition to the amendments to the ZOR, the government would work on some other alternatives that could compensate any possible negative aspects of the enforcement of that law. The union federations are continuing to demand that contentious issues, that diminish workers' rights, should be forwarded into parliamentary procedure as an amendment to the bill once all social partners have agreed on the disputable matter. We expect the government's decision tomorrow while the unions will continue to stand by their attitude, a vice president of the Federation of Independent Unions of Croatia (SSSH) Ivan Tomac said. The president of the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP), Zeljko Ivancevic, labelled the amendments to the law as a compromise, and said that reforms in the labour legislation should be carried out in an accelerated way so as to ensure proper conditions for economic development. (hina) sp ms sb