UNION HEAD DISMISSES PM'S CLAIMS ABOUT SALARY CUTS, ELECTORAL CAMPAIGN

ZAGREB, May 18 (Hina) - The leader of the Independent Croatian Workers' Unions (NHS) association, Kresimir Sever, on Friday dismissed Prime Minister Ivica Racan's claims at yesterday's government session that "salaries in public and civil services will not experience a radical cut" and that "(by speculating about salary cuts) some unions have joined in the election campaign." If the public sector this year has approximately the same number of employees as last year and their wage budget is 10 percent lower than last year, as in the first five months of this year they received salaries according to the old scheme, then their salaries for the remaining months of this year must drop by about 17 percent so that the wage budget is not exceeded, he said. If drastic cuts in the number of employees in public and civil services is to be made in the second half of the year and if the level of other workers' salaries is to be maintained, the percentage of layoffs must be similar to the percentage of the salary cut, Sever warns. These figures show why talks about this problem should have been held and an agreement reached before the adoption of the state budget for 2001, namely, in the second half of 2000, the union leader said. It is therefore inadmissible that this problem is being swept under the carpet until local elections are over and that the government's expert teams are still calculating the new salary base, he says. Racan's statement about the unions having joined the electoral campaign is "arbitrary and accusing," Sever said, reminding that before last year's January 3 elections Racan had not minded some unions joining the electoral campaign of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) or the fact that some union leaders were on SDP's rosters today. (hina) rml