INA UNIONS WARN OF STRIKES UNLESS SALARIES INCREASE

ZAGREB, Oct 27 (Hina) - Some five hundred Croatian oil company INA union members on Tuesday staged a protest in front of the company's premises in Zagreb, requesting an increase in salaries, the payment of subsidies and overtime compensation. Three unions of employees at Ina warned they would stage a strike if their requests are not met. Employees are requesting a 21.9 per cent rise in minimum salaries, or US$360 minimum salary. Another request is that future salaries be regulated by a collective agreement, and not through the government's administrative decisions, and that managerial salaries, which have increased, stop being paid from the fund where other employees' salaries come from, as it is restricted, according to a government decision. The unions are requesting a deadline for the payment of subsidies which would amount to an average salary at Ina, as well as the urgent payment of all overtime hours and enabling employees to use days off. The unions request that during the upcoming privatisation of the company, employees and retired employees of Ina be given the right to obtain stock, just as every other employee, according to the Privatisation Law, and that future organisational restructuring be done within the company, not by separating certain companies within it. The unions again requested to be received by Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa. The present ratio of the lowest and highest salaries at Ina are one to twenty-five, or US$229 to US$5,740, while 68 per cent of employees are receiving lower salaries than the average salary in Croatia. President of an Ina union, Bozo Mikus, warned that if the present policy towards Ina continued, Croatia could lose its oil company. "It is being seriously considered that the research of new sources be stopped, and that the existing ones be exploited until there are resources to exploit. The moment Ina stops producing oil and gas, it will cease to exist as the Croatian oil company," Mikus said. (hina) lml jn