Shop steward Marina Glokevic and Metal Workers Union president Vedran Dragicevic said the Finance Ministry owed RIZ HRK 103 million.
Dragicevic said the union would now allow the sale of RIZ, demanding that its workers be allowed to buy stock in the company or that stock be given to them in the amount of the government's debt to RIZ.
He and Glokevic demanded a fast-track adoption of an employee stock ownership plan so that workers, Glokevic said, "can decide about themselves without political machinations and the real estate mafia."
Former RIZ executive Milic Bijelic said the former State Property Management Agency and and its successor, the current State Property Management Office, had been unlawfully holding company stock for four years. He said in that period the management was changed seven times and that HRK 70 million was stolen from the company's account.
(EUR 1 = HRK 7.6)