INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION REPS VISIT ZAGREB

ZAGREB, June 16 (Hina) - A delegation of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Wednesday arrived in Zagreb for a two-day visit to Croatia, during which they are to hold talks with Croatian government and union representatives about the problem of division of the union property. The ILO delegation will on Thursday meet representatives of the Labour and Welfare Ministry and all five Croatian union federations. According to Deputy Labour Minister Vera Babic, the meeting will discuss, among other things, criteria for the division of the union property, as suggested by the unions recently. Babic said the ILO delegation was visiting Croatia at her invitation since at an ILO conference in Geneva this spring, representatives of this organisation had inquired whether Croatia had resolved the dispute regarding the union property. However, head of the department for international relations of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (SSSH), Jasna Petrovic, claimed the ILO delegation was visiting Croatia because of a campaign the SSSH was conducting against the Government's attempt to try to declare the unions' property as the state property. The SSSH in 1997 started proceedings before the ILO against the Croatian Government, claiming that Article 38 of the Law on Associations, according to which the union property had temporarily been declared the state property, was contrary to the ILO convention on freedom of union activities. (hina) jn rml