GREATER FUNDS FOR SCIENCE IS CONDITION FOR SOCIAL PACT -- RIBIC

ZAGREB, Aug 28 (Hina) - The Centre of Croatian Public Services Unions will sign a social pact if the Government would, in the next three years, increase funds for science and education, the Centre's president, Vilim Ribic, told Monday's news conference. Ribic holds that funds should be increased from the current 1.32 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to two per cent for science, while funds for education should be raised from the present 3.1 per cent of the GDP to 4.2 per cent in the next three years. The Government's proposal that the allocations for science and education should increase in line with the increase of the inflation rate is proof that the Government does not recognise knowledge as a foundation for development, Ribic said. "The goal of any social pact is social peace in the function of stability and development which are not possible to achieve without investments in their main levers, science and education," Ribic said. Also, the Centre's condition for signing the social pact "Partnership for Development" among the Government, unions and the association of employers, are adequate wages for scientists and other educated staff, with the aim of preventing their leaving the educational and science systems for the sphere of economy, he said. Ribic said that during the implementation of the social pact unions should be helped maintain stability by having non-members pay solidarity fees to help finance the work of unions and other associations. Should it sign the pact, the Centre will give up on strikes and pressures on the price of work, which it expects other union centres to do. They should commit to refraining from organising general strikes and strikes which would involve entire branches of the economy, Ribic asserted. (hina) lml