Some of the trade unions operating within the Zagreb Holding multi-utility conglomerate held a protest rally on Tuesday, demanding the resignation of the management and suspension of the process of identifying redundant labor.

Several hundred protesters, including employees and union leaders, gathered outside the Holding’s headquarters, waving union flags and holding banners saying “Down with the ZG Holding management” and “Stop this farce”.

The protesters demanded that the workers declared redundant should not be laid off before a reorganization plan and a new job classification plan were adopted.

The protesting unions had been involved in social dialogue with the management on identifying redundant labor. Unhappy with the process, seven unions from the SSSH union federation withdrew from the negotiations in early February, while the leaders of so-called in-house unions continued negotiating.

The in-house unions and the management agreed a list of 447 staff to be included in a redundancy program.

Baldo Kovačević, the leader of one of the protesting unions, said that the whole process had been poorly led because the management negotiated with the “illegitimate body”, a negotiating committee comprising seven representatives of the in-house unions and only two from the SSSH. He said the whole situation was bizarre because the same people who for years had been involved in hiring were now deciding on layoffs.

Commenting on the protest, Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic said that the social dialogue was constructive and that a majority of the unions were continuing the dialogue while only a minority was protesting.

He said that the original list of 544 redundant staff had been reduced to 447, denying the claims that it included cleaning and security staff.

Tomasevic said that identifying redundant labor was part of the process in which the Holding, after operating at a loss for two years, should be put back on its feet so that it could settle its debts next year.