POWER UTILITY COMPANY WORKERS WARN GOVT NOT TO REDUCE SALARIES

ZAGREB, March 20 (Hina) - A union of workers employed in Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP), the national power utility company, on Monday threatened the government it would pull off the switch in case their salaries were cut. A representative said the Independent Trade Union of Croatian Electrical Power Industry Workers was displeased with Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac's announcement that the government would consider a public service workers' union motion according to which the salaries of state and public service workers should be correlated with the trend of state budget users' salaries. According to union president Orlando Ortile, this means HEP, although a successful public company, would unjustly be penalised if public workers' salaries were reduced. The work agreement does not envisage such a correlation either, he said. Ortile warned the government his union would not tolerate even the smallest reduction of salaries at HEP. "We are warning Minister Crkvenac the power switches are in our hands. We know where to turn off (presidential offices at) Pantovcak and (government headquarters at) Gornji Grad," he said. Unionists explained state and public service workers were not only the users of the state budget, but also the ones who brought money in it. (hina) ha jn