DEMOCRATIC UNIONS BLOC SUPPORTS BILL ON UNION REPRESENTATION

ZAGREB, Feb 4 (Hina) - The Croatian Democratic Unions Bloc (HBDS) on Thursday called on parliament representatives to adopt the bill on determining union representation in national tripartite bodies because "it will improve the state of democracy in Croatia" and "narrow the possibility of manipulating inter-union conflicts with the aim of weakening the unions". The bill, composed in consultations with the unions and with the support of the International Labour Organisation, meets the common criteria applied in democratic countries, the HBDS said in a statement. The bill envisages the determining of representation of individual unions on the basis of the number of its paying members, the number of signed collective agreements on the national level and the number of branch offices. Such criteria represent the common method of establishing the strength and representative quality of unions, the HBDS claims. The HBDS is a coalition of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Croatia, Council of Croatian Public Service Workers Unions, Croatian Graphic Workers Union, Croatian Journalists Union and the Croatian Post and Telecommunications Union, representing the majority of union-organised workers in Croatia. (hina) rml