Finding a model for paying the salaries to the workers on strike at Croatia’s largest shipyard, Uljanik, as soon as possible is the management’s main priority, according to the company’s Business Council which met in Pula on Sunday.

All 4,500 workers of Uljanik went on strike on Wednesday after they did not receive their July salaries.

Under the collective agreement, the Uljanik workers were supposed to have been paid on August 15. Given that that day was a public holiday in Croatia, the salaries should have been paid the following day.

This, however, did not happen.

The management is working with state institutions on finding ways to pay the salaries and continue the financing until the programme of the restructuring of the company starts, said a statement issued by the Uljanik Group’s Corporate Communications Office.

“Having in mind the key role the support of state institutions involved in the restructuring programme is playing in the programme’s realisation, we believe this support exists as, according to a government decision from February, the restructuring program is the second step after the rescue aid loan,” the statement said.

The management is respecting the strike but said that it was in nobody’s interest to harm the clients, at least regarding parts of the production that do not influence the continuation of the legal strike, the Uljanik Group said.

According to media speculations, the government is considering acquiring a stake at the troubled company, allowing it to pump in some 100 million kuna (€13.5 million) into the company to save it from bankruptcy.

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