"It is not clear to me why our idea was not recognised. Judging from yesterday's statements, the government will not accept our proposal," Matijasevic said.
Five trade union federations which have stated that they have collected a total of 813,016 signatures for the petition to get the referendum against the draft amendments to the Labour Act (ZOR) proposed by the government, on Thursday urged the cabinet of Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor to treat this figure as if the referendum were already conducted successfully.
Union leaders told a news conference in Zagreb that 813,016 signatures were 19.9 percent of the Croatian electorate.
The five trade union federations at midnight 23 June finished collecting signatures for the referendum. In order to make their request for a referendum valid, the unions had to collect at least 449,506 signatures (10 percent of the electorate) in the period from June 9 to 23.
Matijasevic said today that in the event the government accepted the proposal this would eliminate its arguments about high costs for holding the referendum.
He added that the pace of preparations for the referendum was determined by unions.
He declined to say when the collected signatures would be given to Parliament Speaker and when exactly the referendum would be held.