GOVT CALLS UPON UNIONS TO ACCEPT AGREEMENT ON SALARIES

ZAGREB, March 1 (Hina) - The Croatian government on Thursday formulated a draft agreement on the salary policy for the 2001-2003 period, and called on unions and employers to sign it. "I hope the unions will accede to the agreement and that we shall have a signed agreement within a fortnight," said Goran Granic, the deputy prime minister authorised to sign the agreement on the government's behalf. According to the draft, despite a ten percent cut in the gross wage budget in public companies and its movement according to state budget projections in state and public services, individual net salaries this year will not be reduced. In 2002 and 2003, the growth of gross salaries would be linked to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), thus increasing the gross wage budget in state and public services by 75 percent of the GDP's real growth, and by 50% in public companies and those in which the state is the majority owner. The adoption of the draft by public companies in which the state is the employer would provide conditions for launching collective negotiations between those companies and workers' unions. At today's session, the government positively assessed a bill on constitutional changes and motioned that the right to vote depend on one's place of residence, and not, as proposed, on the fulfilment of one's obligations and exercising of rights in Croatia. The motion on constitutional changes was initiated by 34 parliament representatives, the main reason for the changes being the dissolution of the House of Counties and the definition of the Diaspora's right to vote. It has also been proposed that the general and equal right to vote be exercised by Croatian citizens of age who exercise their rights and fulfil their obligations in Croatia. The government, however, decided that a more precise formulation would be that the general and equal right to vote is exercised by those with permanent residence in Croatia. (hina) it rml