Independent Trade Unions (NHS) said Demekas' recommendation meant that "the worker will once again bear the entire burden of society's recovery".
The Association of Workers' Trade Unions (URSH) said it was "unacceptable to demand saving or achieving growth through a low price of labour given that salaries are low as it is and most workers barely scrape by".
According to the NHS, for the IMF "money is the only value, while man is an expendable commodity," which makes salaries "merely a cost or a necessary evil". This federation said that although the IMF "only proposes and recommends" to the governments it signed agreements with, it expected its advice to be accepted.
The NHS said the IMF would like to return Croatia to the level of social agreements on freezing or slowing down the growth of salaries, although most salaries had not gone up in a long time and could not cover the growing costs of living.
According to the URSH, the IMF recommendation is irresponsible and lacking in serious arguments. This federation said it would oppose all ideas aimed at turning Croatia into a wholesale market on the outskirts of Europe or the Croatian worker into a commodity "without rights serving European tycoons for a crust of bread".