Over 600 workers of the Djuro Djakovic metal and mechanical engineering group will continue striking until they receive their September wages, and if that does not happen, they will hold a protest rally outside the government offices in Zagreb on Friday, the head of the strike committee, Ivan Baric, told the press on Monday.

On Monday morning Baric met representatives of the group’s management board who repeated to him that money for the payment of the September wages had been secured in agreement with the HEP power company.

Workers have been on strike for the 17th day today. The money for the September wages should be ensured by releasing about HRK 7 million which Djuro Djakovic had provided as a guarantee for a business deal with HEP.

Baric said he had made it clear to the management that the strike would continue until the payment of the September wages. Asked what would happen if the money did not come in on time, he said he believed the wages would be paid out.

Speaking of the wages for October, he said it was important that the agreement on the financing of production should start functioning. “We need that money to buy equipment that would be built into wagons that are nearly finished. The delivery of the wagons would secure our wages for October,” Baric said.

Mirko Duspara, the mayor of Slavonski Brod where Djuro Djakovic is based, expressed his support for the striking workers. He said that regardless of claims by Economy Minister Darko Horvat, the state had a decisive role in the management of the Djuro Djakovic Group.

“This only proves that the majority owner, and that is the state, did not run the company well. The government has appointed the management and is responsible. We drew attention to the problem when the government took the Djuro Djakovic Group off the list of companies of special interest to the state,” Duspara said.

Minister Horvat said last week that the state owns slightly over 20 percent of Djuro Djakovic while the rest is in private ownership.