Negotiations between the management board of the state-owned national flag carrier Croatia Airlines and the company’s workers’ union fell through, and, after all legal measures have been exhausted, a strike became a possibility, N1 learned on Tuesday.

According to the information from the workers’ union in Croatia Airlines, a strike in the airline is a possibility, although it has not been officially announced yet.

The ORCA workers’ union had already planned a strike in August 2017 only to postpone it after meeting with Transport Minister Oleg Butkovic.

The workers are demanding higher wages, longer collective agreement and less overtime work.

Croatia Airlines commented on the demands in a press release.

“The employers’ offer is in line with the offer from December 2017, and it includes keeping all the rights from the former collective agreement (the provisions of which are still in force), a pay increase of 2.5 percent, reimbursements of 1000 kuna (€135.5) and signing a new collective contract by the end of 2019,” Croatia Airlines said.

However, the ORCA workers’ union repeated yesterday that a minimal condition for continuing the negotiations is a three-year extension of the 2017 collective contract.

This is financially unacceptable and unsustainable for the company because it would mean additional annual costs of some 32 million kuna (€4.3 million), the press release said.

Croatia Airlines, which the government is trying to find a partner willing to invest some €33.7 million in, has recently posted a €11.4 million loss in Q1 2018. It has more than 900 employees and operates a fleet consisting of four Airbus A319s, two Airbus A320s and six Bombardier Q400 aircraft.

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