MINISTERS VIDOVIC AND LUCIN SPEAK WITH LEADERS OF SISAK PROTEST

SISAK, Nov 21 (Hina) - Croatian Labour and Social Welfare Minister Davorko Vidovic and Interior Minister Sime Lucin arrived in Sisak in the afternoon hours due to a protest staged by some 2,000 workers of the town's Ironworks and Capraga Overhaul at the town's New Bridge which began at noon Thursday. #L# The ministers held talks with representatives of Ironworks' unions about the situation and the workers' request that they be paid two- months' worth of late wages, which Vice-Premier Slavko Linic pledged would occur today. Vidovic said that people standing in the streets giving ultimatums to the government was not the solution. The government has done everything it should have for the two-months' worth of salaries to be paid, but these could not be paid today because of technical difficulties in the payment process, he said. Today's protest could have negative effects on undergoing negotiations with strategic partners willing to purchase a part of the factory, Vidovic said, calling on the workers to be patient and understanding. The Ironworks factory is a problem of the Commercial Court, the minister said, stressing that the trustee in bankruptcy, Ilija Maric, should have paid the workers their wages. Interior Minister Lucin said he had been informed of one worker being injured during police intervention. If there has been any overstepping of authority, members of the intervention police who did so will be held accountable, he said. Before the protesters began their march to and through the town, police representatives and union leaders had agreed on the roads through which the workers convoy would pass, Lucin said. He stressed that halfway through the march, somebody called on the protesters to make a detour, and added he would investigate as to who had done so. (hina) lml sb