TWO UNIONS SURPRISED BY CONCLUSIONS OF ECONOMIC-SOCIAL COUNCIL

ZAGREB, Dec 3 (Hina) - Two unions which did not participate in Saturday's session of the Economic and Social Council have described the session as a "pre-orchestrated farce the government is using to buy social peace." Following the closed-door session, which was attended by Prime Minister Ivica Racan and his cabinet, the president of the government's office for social partnership, Vitomir Begovic, announced that by year's end, the government, the employers and the unions would sign Partnership for Development, an agreement on strategic economic and social goals, based on the government's development priorities. "It is a farce in which the unions are the extras and the government the director," the president of the Association of Workers' Trade Unions (URSH), Boris Kunst, told Hina on Sunday. The president of the Independent Croatian Trade Unions (NHS), Kresimir Sever, was surprised by the latest standpoints of the unions, which until now said they would not sign a social pact if collective agreements were being cancelled and the government was announcing the reduction of workers' rights. Kunst said the URSH would sign the pact if the government started acknowledging the unions as equal partners in the settlement of all issues of labour and social interest. (hina) ha sb