PLITVICE: SEMINAR ON LABOUR LEGISLATION WITHOUT MOST UNION REPS

PLITVICE, May 2 (Hina) - Most Croatian union federations did not send their representatives to a meeting on labour legislation that started at the Plitvice national park on Thursday. #L# The president of the Croatian Association of Trade Unions, Zdenko Mucnjak, was the only union leader to attend the seminar. The Council of Croatian Public Service Workers also sent a representative. The leaders of the other three union federations refused to meet with government officials and employers, claiming that such meetings only served the purpose of maintaining "an illusion of social dialogue". The unions are particularly dissatisfied with the government's draft changes to the Labour Act which they claim will drastically reduce workers' rights. The leaders of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Croatia, the Independent Croatian Trade Unions, and the Association of Workers' Trade Unions of Croatia have said that they will nevertheless attend a session of the Economic-Social Council scheduled for Monday, May 6, so that social dialogue, which they say has been seriously jeopardised by the government's changes to the Labour Act, could resumed. The seminar, which was organised by the International Labour Organisation, with the support of the US Agency for International Development, focuses on the reform of the European labour legislation, the principles of labour legislation in the European Union, and collective bargaining. (hina) rml sb