MINISTER: LABOUR ACT - STEP TOWARD PROTECTION OF WORKERS' RIGHT TO RECEIVE WAGE

ZAGREB, July 13 (Hina) - The House of Representatives on Thursday continued its extraordinary session with a debate on changes to the Labour Law, the first in a group of ten laws regulating labour and social rights, aimed at providing social security for workers. The Government has pledged in its programme that it will protect the right of workers to receive wages for their work and this is the first step in that direction, as well as in the adjustment of the domestic legislation to European standards, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Davorko Vidovic said. The Government suggests measures for more efficient realisation of wages, including a proposal that wages be paid by the fifteenth in the month for the previous month and not by the end of the month as was the case before, Vidovic said. The proposal also includes the legalisation of strike in the event workers are not receiving wages, Vidovic said, adding workers could be fired for staging such strikes before. The changes also strengthen the role of workers in the process of decision-making, secure better protection of workers' rights and regulate in a more detailed way relations between the unions, associations and employers, the Minister said. (hina) rml