COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT FOR 'JUTARNJI LIST' DAILY SIGNED

ZAGREB, May 16 (Hina) - The management board and union of "Jutarnji list" on Thursday signed a collective agreement which regulates the workers' and material rights of 160 persons employed in the daily.#L# This is the first collective agreement signed in "Europapress holding" (EPH), the largest private media company in Croatia with 530 employees. The EPH co-owner, Ninoslav Pavic, said that employees with other magazines and newspapers published by this media house would receive similar collective agreements in the near future. "We want the collective agreement for 'Jutarnji list' to be an encouragement to other media which have not yet signed the agreements, as well as to the signing of a national collective agreement for journalism," Pavic said. Under the collective agreement, journalists and other 'Jutarnji list' employees receive guarantees for a five-day working week, at least 19 days of annual vacation, compensation and a net Christmas bonus amounting to 1,000 kuna, additional health insurance amounting to 80 kuna per month and a life insurance or voluntary pension insurance of 150 kuna per month, which is to be paid by the employer. Wages will be determined in an annex to the collective agreement by the end of the year. Until then, the current wage system will apply, which consists of gross basic wage of 3,500 kuna and wage supplements. The president of the Croatian Journalists' Association, Dragutin Lucic, called on the media, particularly those in private ownership, to join this process of collective negotiating. EUR1 = 7.4 kuna (hina) it sb