Croatia's Supreme Court has upheld a Zagreb County Court ruling earlier this month banning a strike at the state-owned national flag carrier Croatia Airlines.

However, unlike the first instance ruling that the company’s union ORCA union did not negotiate their collective agreement in good faith, the Supreme Court concluded that the legal preconditions to allow the strike go on were not met because conciliation procedures with company’s management were not held before the union announced the strike.

After the County Court had ruled that the strike was illegal earlier this month, the ORCA union rejected the court’s interpretation, and announced that it would appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, saying then that they had gone through the legally mandated procedure.

Negotiations with company’s management board were held on several occasions , and as such all the preconditions for the strike to be legal were fulfilled, ORCA said.

Company’s employees had announced a strike in early August, demanding a new collective agreement and the appointment of new management, after the previous management’s term had expired in January 2016.

The company’s caretaker management warned that the airline could suffer losses of up to €800,000 a day during the duration of the strike, adding it would also affect nearly 7,000 passengers on just the first day.

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